Outpatient anesthesia in the pediatric patient: a review.

Outpatient or ambulatory surgery has become one of the fastest growing subspecialties. The practice of outpatient pediatric surgery has numerous advantages. One of the main advantages is the shortened length of time the child is hospitalized. Careful selection of pediatric patients for outpatient surgical procedures is the best way to avoid problems and complications. The most anxiety producing aspect of the operation itself, that of parent separation, is also lessened by outpatient pediatric surgery. Preoperative evaluation and assessment is just as crucial in outpatient surgery as in all other surgical procedures. It is even more important in outpatient pediatric surgery to establish rapport with the parent and child and get a sense of the psychological needs of the patient. Pediatric outpatient surgery is still a relatively new subspecialty and from an anesthetic standpoint, the preoperative assessment is the anesthesiologist's main tool in getting to know his or her patient.