Is Day Care Tonsillectomy a Safe Procedure?

Tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy is the commonest procedure performed by an otolaryngologist. It has been performed as an in-patient procedure. To present our experience of 15 years of day care tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy and to assess the safety of tonsillectomy as a day care procedure. Design: retrospective study. A retrospective study of all day care tonsillectomies with or without adenoidectomies operated at a Secondary care ENT Hospital from 2002 to 2016 has been carried out. In last 15 years, we have operated 1207 tonsillectomies with or without adenoidectomies as a day care procedure. Postoperatively, the patients were discharged after observing for 6 to 8 h. Out of 1207 patients, 3 patients required readmission due to bleeding and 5 due to pain. Hence the overall readmission rate following tonsillectomy was 8/1027, which equals to 0.778 percent. Two patients with postoperative bleeding within 6 h were taken up for exploration and control of hemostasis. One patient of secondary haemorrhage was managed conservatively. None of the patients required blood transfusion. Day care tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy is a safe procedure as long as the patients are carefully selected. It is also cost effective. Level of evidence: Level 4.