Day case surgery: Experience in a tertiary health institution in Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Previous studies on day case surgery in Nigeria have focused mainly on the immediate peri-operative care of the patients within the service hospital. OBJECTIVE: To assess patients' satisfaction and postoperative complications within the first seven days following day case surgery. METHODS: A post discharge patient's survey was conducted on the 7th Postoperative day in 102 consecutive patients who had undergone day care surgery. Patients were interviewed about their postoperative experiences, type of complications and treatment applied, and visits to hospitals or community health facilities/providers. They were also asked to comment on their satisfaction or otherwise of day case treatment. RESULTS: There were 32 occasions of treatment provided to 24 patients (23.5%) after discharge. Seventy-two patients (70.6 %) reported one or more complications, with pain being present in all of them. Some patients received treatment more than once, and for more than one complaint. Pain was the most common reason for seeking treatment. There was no mortality. Eighty-six (84.3%) patients expressed satisfaction with day case treatment, while 10 (9.8%) patients (9.8%) expressed dissatisfaction and 6 (5.9%) patients were indifferent. CONCLUSION: Day surgery provided satisfactory outcome for the majority of our patients, with low complication rates.