Spine surgeries continue to get less invasive for the patient, and because of this a number of operations can be performed on an outpatient basis. Outpatient surgery means that the patient is discharged from the center and return home on the same day of surgery. This process goes exactly as planned for a number of patients, but not everyone gets to leave the surgical center on the day of their operation, even if that was the original plan.
So what happens that leads to the need for an overnight stay when the plan was to discharge the same day? In today’s blog, we take a closer look at some of the factors that cause outpatient spine surgeries to turn into overnight stays for the patient.
Reasons Outpatient Surgeries Don’t Discharge On The Same Day
A recent study published in the August 15, 2022 edition of Spine decided to take a closer look at the reasons why patients undergoing outpatient spine surgery ended up staying over at least one night in a recovery center. They focused on patients who underwent a single level minimally invasive spinal fusion procedure who were considered eligible for outpatient surgery.
In order to be eligible for discharge, the surgery center required that each patient:
- Was cleared by physical therapy
- Was able to void their bowels
- Was able to take pain medications orally
Of the 71 patients studied, only 4 percent were discharged on the same day of surgery, and 69 percent were discharged one day after the operation. In 93 percent of cases, clearance by a physical therapist was the last of the three discharge criteria that was met. After looking closer at the data, research shows that the average time until someone met with a physical therapist for the first time was 17.7 hours, which as you can see isn’t conducive to leaving the same day as surgery.
Obviously some patients are not ready for physical therapy until at least that much time has passed, while other times that time may be driven by an availability of physical therapists. For example, if a patient has outpatient spine surgery in the late morning or early afternoon, it’s unlikely that a physical therapist will come visit them later in the evening, even if they are a candidate for PT.
But perhaps the best finding to come out of the study was that no preoperative or operative variables ended up influencing postoperative discharge ability. In other words, it’s modifiable factors like access to physical therapy or the time you schedule your surgery that are the biggest driving factors in whether or not you are discharged home on the same day.
Dr. Sinicropi has performed countless surgeries on an outpatient basis, and he always works hard to ensure that patients can discharge the same day if all signs are suggesting that they are healthy enough to do so. Obviously we understand that you want to discharge on the same day if possible, but we will always err on the side of caution if we’re not completely confident in your ability to safely return home on the same day.
For more information about outpatient spine surgery or a back pain issue, reach out to Dr. Sinicropi and the team at The Midwest Spine & Brain Institute today at (651) 430-3800.
