Post-operative care and patient satisfaction after ambulatory surgery for breast cancer patients

This study aimed to evaluate patient information provided, the management of post-operative symptoms and post-operative care, and patient satisfaction with ambulatory breast surgery over a 1-year period.

From January to December 2000, all breast cancer patients undergoing conservative breast surgery were offered surgery as an outpatient procedure at the Ambulatory Surgery Unit.

Two hundred and thirty six patients underwent outpatient surgery. None were readmitted during the first night or the first week. Two hundred and nineteen patients completed a questionnaire. One hundred and sixty nine patients (group 1) underwent wide local excision (WLE) and 50 (group 2), WLE and axillary lymphadenectomy. Patients in group 2 experienced more pain at discharge from the hospital (p < or = 0.01) and during the first week after discharge (p < or = 0.00001) than patients in group 1. The mean overall satisfaction score was 8.97 on a scale of 1-10. Post-operative information provided by the surgeon before discharge from the hospital was rated 8.90 on a scale of 1-10 while information provided by the nurse was rated 9.33 (p < 0.0001).

Ambulatory surgery for breast cancer patients is safe and popular with patients, however, post-operative pain presents problem.