Patients Accept a Shorter Hospital Time for Vertical Banded Gastroplasty in a Short Stay Unit: a Randomized Study

BACKGROUND: vertical banded gastroplasty can be performed with a short Post-operative hospital stay without this giving rise to more complications. An increased number of patients can be expected after the NIH consensus statement on Bariatric Surgery. Before cost-effective short stay units are employed for such surgery, patients' attitudes to short-term care should be investigated. METHODS: we compared patient satisfaction in two groups of patients. They had been randomized to have a vertical banded gastroplasty in either a normal ward or a short stay unit, open Monday 7 AM to Friday 1 PM. RESULTS: there were no differences in patient satisfaction with either length of stay or quality of stay, despite the fact that short-stay unit patients stayed significantly shorter post-operatively (3.25 (0.62) days vs. 4.70 (0.95); p = 0.0004; mean (SD)). CONCLUSION: it appears that vertical banded gastroplasty can be performed with a short postoperative hospital stay without discomfort to the patient.