Impact of same-day admissions on outcomes of elective open aortic surgery for infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms: a single-center retrospective analysis.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the impact of same-day admission (SDA) on postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing elective open aortic repair (OAR) of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) at our institution. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A single-center retrospective analysis of patients who underwent elective OSR from January 2017 to December 2022 was conducted. A comparative analysis of the impact of the SDA concept on procedural times, length of postoperative hospital stay, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), and 30-day mortality was conducted by comparing the time periods before (2017-2019) and after (2020-2022) the establishment of a routine SDA concept for patients undergoing elective OAR. RESULTS: During the total study period, 62 patients with AAA were managed with OAR in an elective setting. Twenty-eight patients were treated before and 34 patients after the introduction of a routine SDA concept at our institution. Procedural time was reduced after the introduction of SDA compared with the time period before (193 ± 74 vs. 230 ± 55 min, p = 0.046). The occurrence of MACE (7.1% vs. 5.9%, p = 1.0) did not show a significant difference before and after the introduction of SDA. Furthermore, 30-day mortality rates were 0% both before and after the introduction of a routine SDA concept. CONCLUSIONS: Resource pressures in health care systems force modifications in clinical practice regarding the elective surgical treatment of aortic pathologies. In 2020, at our institution, we introduced a routine SDA concept for patients undergoing elective open abdominal surgery. Implementation of a standardized SDA pathway was associated with shorter procedure times. No statistically significant differences in MACE or 30-day mortality were observed; however, the study was not designed to exclude clinically relevant differences in safety outcomes.