A Comparison of the Safety of Lumbar Fusions Performed as Outpatient (<25-Hour Discharge) or Inpatient (>24-Hour Discharge) Procedures

Epidemiological studies have shown an increasingly frequent use of outpatient lumbar spine surgery, largely due to the availability of increasingly efficient modern surgical approaches. Lumbar spine fusion, however, has been infrequently reported as an outpatient procedure as conventional surgical approaches generally require extended postoperative observation.