(HealthDay News) — Laparoscopic nephrectomy can be safely performed as outpatient surgery in select patients, according to a study published in The Journal of Urology.
Nessn H. Azawi, from the University of Southern in Odense, Denmark, and colleagues conducted a prospective, multicenter descriptive study involving 50 patients (70% males) with renal cancer. The authors examined the feasibility and safety of laparoscopic nephrectomy as outpatient surgery, with postoperative follow-up at 30 days.
The researchers found that 92% of the patients (46 patients) were discharged home within the first 6 hours after surgery. Four of the patients could not be discharged as a result of wrong medication, fatigue, and intestinal injury in 2, 1, and 1 patient, respectively. There was no readmission among the 46 patients discharged early. Antibiotic treatment achieved good results without rehospitalization for 2 patients with wound infection.
“Laparoscopic nephrectomy may be performed as outpatient surgery in carefully selected patients who meet inclusion criteria, representing greater than 40% of candidates for the surgery,” the authors write. “Our study demonstrates that outpatient nephrectomy may be done safely and does not require hospital readmission.”
