Ambulatory surgery ... how far can we go?

Since its revival in the United States in the 1970s, ambulatory surgery, that intermediate level of care between inpatient and outpatient surgery (with immediate discharge of the patient), has grown phenomenally. During the past decade, the growth has been the result of new surgical techniques, improved anesthetic agents and practices that make such procedures safer, improved and better managed ambulatory surgical facilities, and regulations by government and third-party payers. Consequently, increased utilization of expanded ambulatory surgery appears almost unlimited in the foreseeable future.