Benefits and challenges of outpatient spine surgery setting
Expert says personalized care, shorter wait times and improved patient satisfaction are among its benefits
IN THE NEWS: Outpatient spine surgery offers benefits but has some challenges to surmount.
Dr. Michael Oh, a neurosurgeon in the UCI Health Comprehensive Spine Center, spoke to Becker’s Spine Review about the roadblocks and benefits.
The primary challenge, he says, is choosing patients.
“Ensuring patient safety in a setting with limited postoperative monitoring and resources compared to a hospital requires the surgeon to carefully select patients who are medically stable, with minimal comorbidities.”
The biggest advantage of performing spine fusion cases in an outpatient setting, also known as ambulatory, is improved efficiency for both patients and the facility.
“ASCs typically offer shorter wait times, more personalized care and streamlined workflows that enhance both surgeon productivity and patient satisfaction. Moreover, many patients appreciate the convenience of same-day discharge and recovery in the comfort of their own homes, which has shown faster rehabilitation and lower infection risks.”
Oh is a board-certified UCI Health neurosurgeon. He specializes in spine disorders as well as stereotactic and functional neurosurgery for movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease. His clinical interests include endoscopic spine surgery, spinal cord stimulation, deep brain stimulation, spine tumors and spine deformities.
As a professor of neurological surgery at the UC Irvine School of Medicine, his research interests include developing advances in robotics for neurosurgical procedures. He holds a patent for a device for the minimally invasive removal of blood clots in the brain. His research has been published in prominent journals, including the Journal of Neurosurgery, Neural Plasticity and Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
About UCI Health
UCI Health is one of California’s largest academic health systems and the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. Established on July 1, 1976, UCI Health has grown into a 1,461-bed health system that includes UCI Health — Orange, UCI Health — Irvine, four Community Network hospitals and a growing network of ambulatory care centers across Orange and Los Angeles counties. As Orange County’s only academic health systems, UCI Health is home to the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center based in the county, the region’s only American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, American College of Emergency Physicians Gold Level 1 Geriatric Emergency Department and a nationally recognized regional burn center verified by the American Burn Association. Powered by UC Irvine, UCI Health serves 5.6 million people across Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County through excellence in patient care, research and medical education. Follow UCI Health on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.