Physicians at Gulf Breeze, Fla.-based The Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine perform approximately 600 joint replacements a year, with about 15 to 20 percent of them performed as outpatient procedures, according to the Pensacola News Journal.
The key details to know:
1. G. Daxton Steele, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at The Andrews Institute, told the Pensacola News Journal better pain management practices have made outpatient procedures more common.
2. Dr. Steele said migrating total joints to the outpatient setting starts with reducing the time a patient spends in the hospital, from five days to less than one.
3. Physical therapy and non-narcotic pain management methods are used to aid outpatient surgery patients.