With the advent of enhanced recovery programs, postoperative recovery has
become more and more efficient with improved postoperative times to discharge,
decreased hospitalizations, and improved patient satisfaction. Employing these same
principles to a more vulnerable population in an ambulatory setting has proven
effective in making outpatient day surgery possible and successful for the elderly
population. This chapter will discuss the advancing age of the surgical population, the
advancing numbers of surgeries being performed in an ambulatory setting, and the
implications on the elderly population as they undergo ambulatory procedures. Further,
the chapter will discuss how to optimize the elderly population to have a successful
perioperative course by utilizing a team of professionals preoperatively and enhanced
recovery programs peri-operatively. Finally, the chapter will conclude with certain
potential complications that may occur with this populous and how to best avoid them.
Keywords: Airway assessment, Common ambulatory surgeries, Clinical frailty scale, Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS), Multimodal analgesia, Perioperative nutrition screen (PONS), polypharmacy, Pharmacodynamics, Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD).
