ABSTRACT
Day surgery has certain advantages pertinent to both patients and the hospital. Accurate selection of both the procedures and patients is the key to safe and effective day case surgery. Criteria can be divided into: social, surgical and medical. The surgery should be predictable and should not last longer than 120 minutes, although this is no longer a strict criterion. With improving anaesthetic techniques and with major advances in minimal access surgery, patients with complex medical conditions can undergo day case surgery. However, there are groups of patients who would be at increased risk of complications post-operatively and would not be suitable for day case anaesthesia. In patients at high risk of Post-operative nausea and vomiting, total intravenous anaesthesia with propofol can be used for both induction and maintenance, as it has anti-emetic properties. Appropriate timing and planning are important if regional anaesthesia is to be successfully used for day case surgery.
