The Association of Anaesthetists, the British Association of Day Surgery and the Association of Paediatric Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland used a targeted literature review and two-round modified Delphi process to agree recommendations for day surgery.
The document covers patient selection, pre-assessment and optimisation; comorbidities including frailty, obesity and obstructive sleep apnoea; which procedures, including some urgent and emergency surgery, suit a day pathway; logistics; anaesthetic technique; and discharge. Day-surgery rates in the UK now exceed 85%, yet vary widely between hospitals.
For Indian hospitals expanding day-care surgery, the value is a pragmatic framework: comorbidity alone is rarely a reason to exclude a patient if it is optimised and the pathway is designed for it.
- Assess suitability for day surgery by optimised physiology, not by age or BMI alone
- Screen for obstructive sleep apnoea and plan opioid-sparing analgesia for those at risk
- Consider suitable urgent cases, such as some gallbladder and abscess surgery, for day pathways
- Use short-acting agents and multimodal analgesia to support same-day discharge
- Give written discharge advice with a named contact for problems overnight
Why it matters
It widens who can safely go home the same day.
Don't overread it
This is a consensus built on expert agreement, not new outcome data.
Read the rest in the app
You have read your two free briefings this month. The app carries all 27 specialties, every morning, free — and this finding is waiting in it.
Scan to keep reading on your phone. No account needed to start.
Tomorrow morning, before your first patient
One edition a day for anaesthesiology, written by the desk, every claim tied to its paper. Six minutes.
Get the app — free