general surgery day case at a tertiary hospital: a 3-year audit

Background: The concept and practice of day case surgery is becoming popular in the developing world due to certain apparent benefits. Effective audit is a valuable aspect of the progress of this practice. This study aims to carry out an audit of our day case surgery experience at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria. Patients and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the data of all general surgery day cases done between January 2011 and December 2013. The data obtained were patients′ age, sex, diagnosis, surgeries performed, mode of anesthesia, and readmission rate. Results: A total of 453 day case general surgeries were performed. The age range of the patients was 14-82 years, with a median of 31 years. Local anesthesia was used on all patients. The most commonly performed procedures were excision of breast lumps (n = 267, 58.7%) and herniorrhaphies (n = 108, 23.8%). Other procedures included incisional biopsies (n = 17, 3.8%), lymph node biopsies (n = 13, 2.9%), and excision of lipomas (n = 10, 2.2%). There was no readmission or fatality. Conclusion: Day case surgery on suitably selected patients is practicable and safe in our environment. The provision of dedicated day case surgical units will greatly improve the practice.