J. Stephen Jones, MD, FACS, MBA, Editor

As a resident, we automatically hospitalized prostatectomy patients for 5 days regardless of their clinical status. In my early practice one patient objected to staying for a second postoperative night because he “felt fine” during afternoon rounds. The charge nurse and I looked at each other, each trying to get the other to come up with a good reason for him to remain hospitalized. Neither of us could, so I discharged him and was immediately scorned by older colleagues for the seemingly haphazard decision. Twenty years later, half of my radical retropubic prostatectomy patients as well as many of our robotic prostatectomy patients go home on that timetable, and rarely, even on the evening of surgery. Innumerable patients have been put at lower risk of hospital acquired conditions and unnecessary costs as a result of this trend across all surgical specialties.

With the shift to outpatient surgery comes its natural partner—a shift of more and more procedures into the office setting—the subject of this edition of Urologic Clinics . Beyond the obvious financial benefits are a multitude of other advantages. Care is more likely to be delivered closer to the patient’s home, and in a more comfortable and usually less intimidating setting than a traditional operating room. Safety and quality should never be sacrificed, but the office setting incurs less excessive regulatory oversight and complexity. If systemic medications or anesthetics are foregone, patients avoid potential side effects and additional costs. They can also drive themselves to and from the procedure appointment, so neither they nor a driver must take off a full day of work. This trend is a big satisfier for most patients and certainly is to the urologist who is far more efficient and has to do much less redundant paperwork.

The authors have been carefully selected based on leadership and expertise in this trend. These nationally known experts have played key roles in defining their respective fields and are regarded as critical thought leaders in both academic and private practice, where many of the innovations occur. Importantly, they present the topics in a practical manner. I learned from each of them and know much of their advice will be integrated into the practices of the readership.