Increasingly, doctors are performing surgeries in their offices rather than hospitals--a win for patients, who get to avoid facility fees, and doctors, who capture more business. Such surgeries have shot up dramatically, from about 2 million U.S. outpatient surgeries in 1980 to more than 10 million last year. However, a new study suggests that this trend comes with risks.Â
The study concluded that when a surgery is performed in a doctor's office, patients face a higher risk of death and complications versus surgeries performed in other facilities, particularly where cosmetic surgery is concerned. The big issue is dealing with adverse reactions to anesthesia. Researchers, who looked at 31 deaths and 146 hospitalizations occurring in Florida after office surgeries from March 2000 to March 2007, found that cosmetic surgeries accounted for 61 percent of of the deaths and hospitalizations, with liposuction under general anesthesia causing a quarter of those adverse events.
To get more data from the study:
-Â read this South Florida Sun Sentinel article
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