The admissions to Vancouver General Hospital from its Surgical Day Care Centre were reviewed for the period I977 to 1987. The overall mean rate of admission for the period was 0.28 per cent, for surgically-related admissions 0.22 per cent and for anaesthesia-related admissions 0.07 per cent. The principal reasons for surgery-related admissions were postoperative bleeding, complications, the need for further surgery, the requirement for prolonged postoperative care, and pain. Urology had a particularly high percentage of admissions compared with its workload, because of the diagnostic nature of much of the work. Anaesthesia-related admissions included "syncope," lack of an accompanying adult, aspiration pneumonitis and coincident acute disease. Twelve of the 14 patients admitted with syncope had surgery in the afternoon and had received less than ideal amounts of intravenous fluid. Seven of the 12 ASA physical status 11 patients admitted had an admission diagnosis related to the coincident disease. © 1990 Canadian Anesthesiologists.
