Complications of outpatient tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy: a review of 3,340 cases

Of the 3,340 T&A cases reviewed, 1.4% of the patients experienced major complications, including primary or delayed hemorrhage, anesthetic complications, severe nausea, and dehydration. Less than 1% (0.5%) required hospital admissions. Only 5 patients (0.15%) were identified as patients who would have been in the hospital at the time the complication occurred if all T&A patients had been hospitalized for 48 hours postoperatively. Although this rate of occurrence for complications should not be ignored, it is the opinion of the authors that it is a risk level low enough to be well within acceptable limits for outpatient operations. The trend toward outpatient procedures is one that will undoubtedly grow not only because of the advances in medical technology, which enable the provision of better and safer medical care, but also because of the economic considerations in today's health care world. Currently, the medical profession is in a period of transition to determine which surgical procedures are appropriate for outpatient treatment. As physicians, our concern to provide safe, rational therapy to our patients must preclude all other considerations. Our retrospective case review supports the concept that patients who require T&A, when properly evaluated, can have safe operations on an outpatient basis.