Over the past decade, the percentage of elective surgical procedures performed on a day case basis has increased from 55% to over 70%. The current interest and focus on day surgery is a result of public demand and government-imposed targets. This concise handbook provides the practising day surgery professional with a modern overview of current practice to act as both a reference and a practical guide to everyday challenges.

The last ten years has seen major advances in day case anaesthesia with the introduction of new equipment, multimodal techniques, and new anaesthetic agents specifically designed for ambulatory surgery. The rapid expansion of minimally invasive surgery has enabled many more procedures to be performed on a short stay basis and the development of new processes and patient pathways requires expert pre-assessment, nurse-led discharge and outreach follow-up. This book covers the ambulatory process throughout the entire patient pathway offering extensive and authoritative evidence and opinion to the many stakeholders in this multidisciplinary subject.