[Is surgery of inguinal hernia acceptable in ambulatory care?]

A prospective study was performed of 45 selected patients subjected to inguinal hernia repair on an outpatient basis. Forty-two patients (93%) were discharged the same day. In retrospect 37 of the patients (82%) favoured this outpatient procedure. The early complication rate was not higher than that of a comparable group of inpatients with an average hospital stay of 5.8 days.