Same-day discharge is not associated with increased readmissions or complications after thyroid operations

Overnight hospitalization after thyroid surgery has been a widely adopted practice because of the concern for complications such as hypocalcemia and hematoma. Same-day discharge, however, has become popular in recent years.

The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Targeted Thyroidectomy database (2016-2017) was used to identify patients who underwent thyroid resections. A 1:1 propensity score matching was used to match patients who were discharged on postoperative day 0 and those discharged on postoperative days 1 or 2. Multivariable logistic regression models were constructed to assess the association between discharge timing and postoperative outcomes.

Of the 10,502 patients, 2,776 (26.4%) were discharged on postoperative day 0, and 7,726 (73.6%) were discharged on postoperative days 1 or 2. After propensity score matching, 1,977 matched pairs were created. In this matched cohort, the rates of readmission were similar when comparing patients discharged on postoperative day 0 with those discharged on postoperative days 1 or 2 (odds ratio 1.26, 95% confidence interval 0.78-2.05). Likewise, no differences were observed in the rates of surgical site infection, clinically severe hypocalcemia, neck hematoma, or recurrent laryngeal nerve injury.

In a national cohort of patients undergoing thyroid surgery, same-day discharge was not associated with greater rates of readmission or complications when compared with discharge 1 or 2 days after thyroid surgery.