Outpatient Vascular Intervention: A Two-Year Experience

PURPOSE: To retrospectively analyze the outcome of a range of interventional vascular procedures performed on outpatients. METHODS: Suitability for outpatient procedures was assessed according to agreed protocols. An episode was defined as any procedure/s through a single access site at one attendance. Retrospective case-note review was performed. RESULTS: There were 693 outpatient episodes between April 1998 and May 2000 (290 interventional, and 403 diagnostic procedures), comprising 25% (693/2,769) of the total workload. Follow-up is available in 214; 38 of these were transfers from outlying hospitals and were excluded from analysis. One hundred and seventy-six were true outpatients. There were 98 iliac and 46 femoropopliteal interventions, 2 aortic stents, 1 renal and 5 upper-limb angioplasties (PTAs), 5 embolizations, 8 Hickman lines, 1 line stripping, 3 atherectomies, 1 dialysis-graft PTA and 6 bypass-graft PTAs. Sixty-eight closure devices were used. Twelve patients were converted to inpatients (6.8%, 12/176). The readmission rate was 3.4% (6/176). The reattendance rate was 1.1% (2/176), both subsequently attending for outpatient duplex ultrasound examination to exclude pseudoaneurysm. The major complication rate was 3.4% and the delayed major complication rate was 1.7%. CONCLUSION: Outpatient vascular intervention is safe with appropriate protocols and with careful patient selection. Local vascular services benefit from the release of inpatient beds.