A study across 21 Kaiser Permanente sites in Northern California supports sending patients home the day of a mastectomy, the Sonoma Index-Tribune reports.
What you should know:
1. The study, published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology, is among the first to evaluate the effectiveness of an at-home recovery program for mastectomy.
2. Researchers noted no significant increase in complications or hospital readmissions after increasing the number of outpatient mastectomies from 23 percent of 717 patients in 2017 to 61 percent of 663 patients in 2018.
3. Length of stay also decreased from 22.9 hours to 12.6 hours.
4. Kaiser attributes its success to its presurgical training program, which sets expectations for recovery and teaches patients how to manage pain at home with minimal opioid use.
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