Bookmarkers beware: Bookmarks to pages other than the home page may not work after we change our server in April Editor's Choice | This Week in BMJ | Press releases BMJ No 7131 Volume 316 News Saturday 21 February 1998 Office surgery in Florida to be reviewed The death of a 51 year old man earlier this year while undergoing nine hours of liposuction, a face lift, and penile enlargement in the office of a plastic surgeon has resulted in calls for a review of the regulations which govern office surgery. The regulations, written by Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration in 1992, define three levels of office surgery governed largely by the degree of anaesthesia required. According to newspaper reports, the man was recovering in the office under a nurse's observation, when she noticed deterioration in his vital signs and called the emergency medical service. Despite efforts at resuscitation, he died later in hospital. Florida's secretary of health, Dr James Howell, said: "I'm very concerned when people start doing six, eight hours of surgery in the office." He asked the Florida Board of Medicine to review the regulations. Dr Donato Viggiano, a Port St Lucie surgeon who owns and operates an ambulatory surgical centre, testified before the board. In a telephone interview he said that there was a comprehensive annual inspection of surgical centres similar to the accreditation of hospitals. The centre received a certificate of compliance. But the standard of care for office surgery does not require inspections or reports of operations. After the hearing the board voted unanimously to appoint a task force to review and if necessary revise the regulations. Dr Edward Dauer, a past chairman of the Florida Board of Medicine, said that an important question was whether doctors performing ambulatory surgery should be licensed and inspected by the state or by an independent accrediting organisation. He said that the board did not judge the qualifications of doctors performing ambulatory surgery but could discipline them if they exceeded their competence. Fred B Charatan, Florida Home | Current issue | Past issues | Classified ads | Career Focus | Feedback Collections | About this site | About the BMJ | BMA | Medline