Geriatric Ambulatory Patients

Abstract

With the advent of enhanced recovery programs, postoperative recovery has become more and more efficient with improved postoperative times to discharge, decreased hospitalizations, and improved patient satisfaction. Employing these same principles to a more vulnerable population in an ambulatory setting has proven effective in making outpatient day surgery possible and successful for the elderly population. This chapter will discuss the advancing age of the surgical population, the advancing numbers of surgeries being performed in an ambulatory setting, and the implications on the elderly population as they undergo ambulatory procedures. Further, the chapter will discuss how to optimize the elderly population to have a successful perioperative course by utilizing a team of professionals preoperatively and enhanced recovery programs peri-operatively. Finally, the chapter will conclude with certain potential complications that may occur with this populous and how to best avoid them.

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