Overnight admission of outpatient strabismus patients

The trend to outpatient strabismus surgery prompted us to determine the frequency of, and the reasons for, postoperative overnight hospital admission following such surgery. In one year, 303 outpatient strabotomies were performed at the Jules Stein Eye Institute on patients over 15 months old. Twenty-four (7.9%) were admitted overnight postoperatively. Compared with controls, those admitted were older (37 vs 20.5 years), and had a longer duration of anesthesia (145 vs 116 minutes) and surgery (104 vs 75 minutes) (P less than .01 for each). The time that surgery commenced and the use of perioperative medications were not significant factors. The most frequent reasons for overnight admission were nausea (38%) despite prophylaxis and the use of bilateral patches (16%). To minimize postoperative admissions, better strategies should be developed to decrease the frequency of significant postoperative nausea, the duration of surgery and anesthesia, and, if possible, the use of bilateral patches.