A study reviewing same-day discharge patient outcomes undergoing total knee arthroplasty in the ASC versus the tertiary-care university hospital setting determined that, while ASCs have stricter requirements for TKA patients, they have similar outcomes to same-day hospitals.
The study, published in The Journal of Arthroplasty in February 2025, looked at patients who underwent primary TKA and were discharged the same day from August 2021 to January 2024. Researchers looked at demographics, comorbidities, patient-reported outcome measures, emergency department visits and admissions reoperations.
Of the 449 TKA patients studied, 284 were performed in ASCs and 165 were performed in the hospital setting.
Hospital patients had significantly higher weights than ASC patients, higher preoperative, patient-reported outcome measurement information system pain interference and lower physical function.
After one year, patients who underwent procedures in the hospital and the ASC had a similar number of emergency department visits and admissions at 30 and 90 days, a similar amount of revision-free years and similar patient-reported outcomes.
