[Post-hospital home care after ambulatory surgery]

Ambulatory surgery should correspond to mastered acts performed on selected patients. This makes home care unnecessary in the vast majority of the cases. The development of outpatient surgery toward more complex procedures on more vulnerable patients would justify a specific home care in some circumstances. Justification of an overnight hospitalization only because the need for the patient to be reassured on experienced symptoms, supervision of analgesic device, wound incision overseeing or drains removal appears questionable. Home care after ambulatory surgery may be considered as several different modalities. The involvement of general practitioners, home nurses and telemedicine have to be explored for several procedures. Evolutions of surgical and anesthetic practices toward less invasive procedures, as well as improvement in patient's information, are the major challenges for the future of outpatient surgery.