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Introduction: Haemorrhoidectomy is traditionally an in-patient procedure. With many benefits, day surgery arrangement is an attractive alternative. We explored the feasibility of day surgery haemorrhoidectomy in a case controlled design. Method: A single surgeon’s experience of day-surgery haemorrhoidectomy between 1 July 1999 and 31 March 2000 was compared with in-patient haemorrhoidectomy during the same period. The operations were performed in a government funded public hospital. Statistical tests were applied where appropriate. Results: There were 30 day-surgery and 15 in-patient haemorrhoidectomies. The groups were comparable in terms of age, gender, severity of haemorrhoids, method and duration of haemorrhoidectomy, blood loss, residual haemorrhoids, follow up duration and unplanned re-admission rate. Significantly more day-patients received general than spinal anaesthesia. Twenty-six of 30 (87%) patients were successfully discharged after day-surgery. Two were admitted for transient fever (< 24 hours), 1 for micturition syncope and 1 for acute urinary retention. There were 4 unplanned re-admissions after day-surgery: 1 for pain and 3 for secondary bleeding. All stopped spontaneously. All the 3 unplanned re-admissions after in-patient surgery were for secondary bleeding. All stopped spontaneously. Patient stay was significantly shorter with day-surgery (1 ± 1 day) than in-patient arrangement (4 ± 1.6 days). Conclusion: Day-surgery haemorrhoidectomy is feasible. The significantly shorter hospital stay implies savings in public medical expenses. |
