Septoplasty as a day-case procedure--a two centre study.

Day-stay surgery is an integral part of Otolaryngology. Many procedures which have traditionally been thought to require overnight stay can be carried out on a day care basis. We report our experience of treating 163 patients admitted for septal surgery as a day-case procedure. The paper summarizes the experience of two centres. One of these is a London Teaching Hospital, where surgery was performed through a dedicated day-case unit, and the other is a District General Hospital where patients were admitted to a day-case unit but had their surgery on a routine in-patient list. As the result of this study we conclude that day-stay septoplasty is associated with a low complication rate and is a safe and acceptable procedure provided that strict selection criteria are followed. The cost implications are discussed.