Old age, longer operations and cardiovascular disease all raise longer-term risks from outpatient procedures, a new study finds. Being 65 or older and having a procedure that lasts longer than 120 minutes, cardiac problems, peripheral vascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, cancer, HIV infection and the use of regional or general anesthesia are all associated with an increased risk of hospital admission after a person has outpatient surgery, says a team from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

All these risk factors should be carefully considered before a person has outpatient surgery, the researchers reported in the March 19 issue of the Archives of Surgery.

They analyzed data on more than 783,500 people who had undergone outpatient surgery. Of tho...