New Study Compares After Hours And Daytime Surgery Success

ScienceDaily (Sep. 5, 2009) � Patients who have after-hour orthopaedic surgeries risk a slightly higher rate of necessary follow-up surgeries, according to a study published in the September 2009 issue of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS). The data also suggests that patients whose surgeries took place during the day have the same healing, recovery time, and major complication rates as patients who have surgery after hours.

"Although everyone wants to be treated immediately, it may be in a patient's best interest to wait until morning. The reality is that the on-call night surgical team may not be well rested as it is likely they had just finished a normal day shift." said study lead author William M. Ricci MD, Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Chief of the Orthopaedic Trauma Service in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine.