Hospital stay due to various hysterectomies, caesarean section and normal delivery in Turku University Central Hospital area from 1983 to 1992.

Abstract

The optimal length of hospital stay in obstetrics and gynaecology has recently been much debated, as short hospitalisation times being commonly introduced as alternatives to conventional hospitalisations. The hospital stay for major gynaecological and obstetric surgery as well as normal delivery was studied in the hospitals working in area of the Turku University Central Hospital (population approximately 750,000). In the six studied hospitals the mean hospital stay for abdominal and vaginal hysterectomy decreased during the 1980s by one fifth. In 1992, the mean hospitalisation for hysterectomy varied from 7.4 to 8.3 and from 9.0 to 9.1 days, for abdominal and vaginal hysterectomy, respectively, and that of caesarean section from 8.1 to 8.6 days. The number of days in hospital required for normal delivery was 4.4-6.2 days. These figures are similar to the corresponding national average in Finland, but they also show that the discharge in our country occurs some 2 to 3 times later than what has recently been reported, e.g. from the U.S.A. Consequently, we find that there is a need for a prospective trial to find out how rational short hospitalisation is in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology in Finland.