ABSTRACT
Introduction/Aims: The COVID19 pandemic caused a cessation in services during 2020/2021, resulting in long NHS waiting lists and the low availability of hospital beds for elective patients. Before the pandemic, all patients undergoing orthognathic surgery at a tertiary London hospital were managed with in-patient admission and overnight hospital stay. The difficulty with delivery of in-patient elective surgery encouraged review of this level of postoperative care. Previous studies have highlighted the safety of day case orthognathic surgery. Our Aim is to review peri-operative and post-operative complications following orthographic surgery and to determine the safe implementation of orthognathic surgery as a day case in our unit. Material(s) and Method(s): Retrospective 2 years study of all patients who underwent BSSO, Le Fort 1 and bimaxillary osteotomies during the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 to 2021. The electronic notes were reviewed to record complications and post-operative recovery. Data collated include time to mobilisation, analgesia and anti-emetics requirement. Results/Statistics: Out of the 89 patients in this study, no patients experienced emergency airway or haemorrhage concerns. 3 patients (3.37%) required intervention on the ward on the same day as the surgery. Majority of patients were discharged after overnight stay. 7 patients (7.86%) required morphine and 2 patients (2.25%) required anti-emetics. These were largely specific to bimaxillary osteotomy patients. 1 (1.12%) patient required more than 1 night as an inpatient. Conclusions/Clinical Relevance: We conclude that single jaw osteotomy can be safely undertaken as day case surgery, this may aid recovery in elective surgery and may be applied to more units in UK. Copyright © 2022