[Outpatient surgical practices in otorhinolaryngology].

OBJECTIVES: In this study, we report outpatient surgical procedures in an ear nose and throat (ENT) clinic of a university hospital for the first time in Turkey.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: All patients who were operated between January 2012 and December 2013 by our ENT surgeons either in central operating room or in outpatient surgery unit were retrospectively analyzed. Age of the patients, type of operation, type of anesthesia, and the time of discharge were recorded.

RESULTS: The highest number of outpatient surgical procedures was in the 1-18 age group. The most widely used type of anesthesia was general anesthesia, while adeno/tonsillectomy and tympanostomy tube insertion were the most commonly performed operations. The total number of surgeries was 2,714 and 379 (13.96%) of these patients were discharged on the same day.

CONCLUSION: Outpatient surgery has become widespread in the past three decades, particularly. However, in our study, the ratio of outpatient surgery to all surgical interventions was very low, compared to developed countries.