The emphasis on cost reduction and increased efficiency in health care delivery has prompted an increase in outpatient (ambulatory) surgical procedures. A retrospective review of the perioperative management of @entity1 undergoing @entity3384 repair at two urban tertiary pediatric hospitals was performed to assess the safety of outpatient @entity3384 repair. The hospital database at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles was searched to find all @entity1 who had been operated on for @entity3384 repair during calendar years 1999 and 2000. Two groups were identified from Childrens Hospital Los Angeles: the outpatient @entity3384 repair group ( @entity1 discharged the same day as the operation; n = 91) and the inpatient @entity3384 repair group (n = 14). A data set was acquired from the Royal @entity1 's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, using the same criteria, for fiscal years 1998 to 2000 (n = 50). All @entity1 from Royal @entity1 's Hospital had operations as inpatients. Parameters considered for each group were age, sex, race, ethnicity, length of hospital stay, preexisting medical conditions or diagnoses, complications, and readmissions or presentation to the emergency department within 4 weeks of operation. The Childrens Hospital Los Angeles outpatient group had three readmissions that were considered to be complications of the operation. The Childrens Hospital Los Angeles inpatient group had one readmission attributable to a complication. The Royal @entity1 's Hospital group also had one readmission for a complication. There was no significant difference in the complication rate of the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles outpatient group and the Royal @entity1 's Hospital group (p > 0.05). There was also no significant difference in the complication rate of both of the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles groups compared with the Royal @entity1 's Hospital group (p > 0.05). This study indicates that @entity3384 repair performed in an outpatient setting may be a safe alternative to the inpatient operation. Certain preexisting medical conditions, however, may dictate the need for inpatient hospitalization after repair.

Outpatient XXXX repair.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients', 'Children'] @entity3384 :: ('MESH:D002971', 'Disease') :: ['cleft lip']
@entity3384 :: (MESH:D002971,Disease) :: ['cleft lip']
