Day-stay tonsillectomy: is hospital stay reduced at the expense of increased community care?
There is concern about the burden day-stay surgery created upon community services. We have followed 128 children and 38 adults undergoing day-stay tonsillectomy and a similar cohort of adults and children undergoing tonsillectomy as inpatients and looked at the demands made on general practice and casualty services over the 2 weeks after discharge. Twelve adults (18%) and four children (3%) required overnight admission after day-stay surgery. Within the first 2 weeks, 27 adults (48.2%) and 62 children (50%) visited their GP and 13 adults (23.2%) and six children (4.8%) visited the casualty department. There was no statistically significant difference for either adults or children when comparing the day-stay and inpatient cohorts. Adult day-stay tonsillectomy is associated with a high admission rate. Both adult and paediatric tonsillectomy lead to considerable demand for general practice and casualty services, but this demand is high regardless of whether the day-stay or inpatient route is chosen.
Mitchell
R B
RB
ENT Department, Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel.
Quinn
S J
SJ
Kenyon
G S
GS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008131:London; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014068:Tonsillectomy / Q000379:methods*