Elective surgery

Elective surgery or elective procedure (from the Latin eligere, meaning to choose) is surgery that is scheduled in advance because it does not involve a medical emergency. Semi-elective surgery is a surgery that must be done to preserve the patient's life, but does not need to be performed immediately.

By contrast, an urgent surgery is one that can wait until the patient is medically stable, but should generally be done today or tomorrow, and an emergency surgery is one that must be performed without delay; the patient has no choice other than immediate surgery, if they do not want to risk permanent disability or death.

Most surgeries are elective.

Most surgeries necessary for medical reasons are elective, that is, scheduled at a time to suit the surgeon, hospital, and patient. These include inguinal hernia surgery, cataract surgery, mastectomy for breast cancer, and the donation of a kidney by a living donor are performed as elective surgeries.

Elective surgeries include all optional surgeries performed for non-medical reasons. Cosmetic surgery, such as a facelift or the placement of breast implants, is typically performed to subjectively improve a patient's physical appearance.

Preoperative carbohydrates may decrease amount of time spent in hospital recovering.

When a condition is worsening, but has not yet reached the point of a true emergency, surgeons speak of semi-elective surgery: the peccant part must be dealt with, but a delay is not expected to affect the outcome.

In a patient with multiple medical conditions, problems classified as needing semi-elective surgeries may be postponed until emergent conditions have been addressed and the patient is medically stable. For example, whenever possible, pregnant women typically postpone all elective and semi-elective procedures until after giving birth. In some situations, an urgently needed surgery will be postponed briefly to permit even more urgent conditions to be addressed. In other situations, emergency surgery may be performed at the same time as life-saving resuscitation efforts.

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