What it means for a patient
- About 1 in 6 patients planned for same-day facelift discharge stayed overnight unexpectedly in this center.
- Longer operations with more combined procedures, obesity, high blood pressure and other health conditions raised the chance of admission.
- If you plan several procedures at once or have these conditions, ask whether an overnight stay should be planned.
- Limits: one center, retrospective, 129 patients, and the abstract does not give reasons for admission or report adjustment for overlapping factors.
Why this paper matters
It identifies factors that predict unplanned admission after outpatient facelift. The authors suggest using them in planning to make discharge more predictable.
Overview
Facelifts are increasingly done as outpatient surgery with same-day discharge, but some patients need unplanned admission. The authors reviewed patients who had rhytidectomy at a tertiary care center between June 2022 and July 2025. They compared demographics, health conditions, surgical details and anesthesia between those discharged the same day and those admitted.
Findings
- 129 patients scheduled for outpatient rhytidectomy.
- 108 (83.7%) discharged the same day; 21 (16.3%) had unplanned admission.
- Anesthesia duration: 574.6 ± 102.4 min in admitted patients vs 485.7 ± 80.1 min in same-day patients (p = 0.001).
- Concurrent procedures: mean 4.3 vs 3.3 (p = 0.002).
- Obesity (BMI 30 or more) was linked to admission (p = 0.024).
- Higher ASA class was linked to admission (p = 0.048).
- Hypertension was linked to admission (p = 0.016).
- Dexmedetomidine (p = 0.016) and hydromorphone (p = 0.034) were linked to admission.
- Remifentanil was linked to same-day discharge (p = 0.010).
Terms
- Rhytidectomy: a facelift.
- Outpatient (ambulatory) surgery: surgery with discharge home the same day.
- Unplanned admission: an unexpected overnight hospital stay after planned same-day surgery.
- ASA class: a scale from the American Society of Anesthesiologists that grades a patient's overall health before surgery.
- Concurrent procedures: other operations done during the same anesthesia.
- Dexmedetomidine: a sedative drug used during anesthesia.
- Hydromorphone and remifentanil: opioid pain medicines used during anesthesia; remifentanil wears off quickly.