Audit analysis in : adenotonsillectomy overnight hospital stay

Abstract EN

-Of the recent trends in ENT, the use of ambulatory surgery for adenotonsillectomy is gaining in popular-ity and acceptability.

An audit analysis of this p؛‘oee-dure, on the basis of no overnight hospital stay, is re-ported from King Fahad ïïospital of the University, Al-Khobar (KFHU), Saudi Arabia.

Patients who had their surgery performed and were diseharged from the hospital on the same day, had no more complications than those who were eonventionally hospitalised be-fore and after surgery.

Reactionary haemorrhage was not reeorded in any of the 52 patients who were sched-uled for same-day procedure and discharge.

Only three patients (6%) needed provision for overnight hospital stay after the operation, beeause of fever in one pa-tient, severe dysphagia in another, and the finding of a blood clot in the tonsillar fossae of the third patient.

Suggestions are made for the selection of patients for day-case surgery.

In Saudi Arabia there has been aprogressive improve-ment in health services over the past 20 years.

The coun-try now enjoys one of the most advanced medical serv-ices amongst the developing nations.

However, this high quality care should be maintained, without jeopardising the patient’s safety, at the lowest possible cost.

Since adenotonsillectomy is one of the most commonly per-formed surgical procedures in children, the departmental audit decided to look into its rate of implication when performed as a day-case operation and to compare it with the rates seen using conventional methods, that is, when admitting a day before and discharging when considered safe.

If the complications are comparable, then undoubt-edly there will be great financial savings, and a reduction