The Patient Perspective Regarding Ambulatory Surgery: An Observational Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20344/amp.16494Keywords:
Ambulatory Surgical Procedures, Anesthesia, Patient SatisfactionAbstract
Introduction: Due to the advances in anesthetics and surgery, ambulatory surgery plays an increasingly important role. This regimen, despite showing several advantages, still instills fear in patients. The aim of this was to evaluate the level of knowledge and the perspective of patients regarding ambulatory surgery.
Material and Methods: A prospective study was carried out for two months in patients with pre-anesthetic consultation at a University Hospital Center. Demographic information, educational level, and previous ambulatory surgery were surveyed. Patients’ level of knowledge about surgery, satisfaction, and the perceived advantages and fears regarding this regimen were evaluated. The analysis was performed with SPSS, and p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Two hundred and fifty-one patients were included. One hundred and twenty-eight (51%) patients disclosed having knowledge about ambulatory surgery. The main advantages perceived by patients were more peaceful recovery (44.7%), avoiding being surrounded by other patients (43.1%), and avoiding infection (37.2%). The main fears shown by patients were poor pain control (20.7%), having other health problems (13.1%), and poor control of nausea or vomiting (10%).
Conclusion: Patients may benefit from being more informed about the ambulatory surgical regimen in order to decrease their fears and increase their acceptance of the regimen. Providing more information to patients may result in increased satisfaction with this regimen.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Acta Médica Portuguesa
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
All the articles published in the AMP are open access and comply with the requirements of funding agencies or academic institutions. The AMP is governed by the terms of the Creative Commons ‘Attribution – Non-Commercial Use - (CC-BY-NC)’ license, regarding the use by third parties.
It is the author’s responsibility to obtain approval for the reproduction of figures, tables, etc. from other publications.
Upon acceptance of an article for publication, the authors will be asked to complete the ICMJE “Copyright Liability and Copyright Sharing Statement “(http://www.actamedicaportuguesa.com/info/AMP-NormasPublicacao.pdf) and the “Declaration of Potential Conflicts of Interest” (http:// www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest). An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author to acknowledge receipt of the manuscript.
After publication, the authors are authorised to make their articles available in repositories of their institutions of origin, as long as they always mention where they were published and according to the Creative Commons license.
