Day-surgery guidelines

Day-surgery rates have increased fivefold in the UK in the past 20 years. This is partly due to improvements in surgical and anaesthetic techniques. As experience has grown, both the complexity of surgery and degree of permissible co-morbidity have increased in day-case patients with little evidence that complication rates are increased. Because some of the guidelines relating to day surgery may now be out dated, this article will discuss some of the more controversial issues.