Safety of day-stay tonsillectomy

The appropriateness of tonsillectomy as a day case procedure is not universally accepted, however, the procedure has been performed in our institution since 1996. Our policy has been to continue this practice. To assess the appropriateness of this practice in our institution, a retrospective study of 802 tonsillectomies performed over 16 months was conducted. A telephone based questionnaire was formed to assess safety of the procedure and to evaluate the experiences and attitude of the served community towards our practice. Four hundred and thirty-three (61.3%) patients/parents were contactable to answer the questionnaire. Fifty-eight percent felt that a same day discharge was favorable with 6% considering that an overnight stay would have been preferable, others had no preference. Regarding the problems at home, 76% reported no problems on the first night, with 3% needing medical assistance that night, half of which were admitted in the hospital. We conclude that with the practices in place in this center, our policy of aiming for same day discharge is appropriate, being safe and agreeable to both patients and health care providers.