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Advances in medicine have improved the delivery of health care, making it more technologically superior than ever and, at the same time, more complex. Nowhere is this more evident than in the surgical arena. Plastic surgeons are able to perform procedures safely in office-based facilities that were once reserved only for hospital operating rooms or ambulatory surgery centers. Performing procedures in the office is a convenience to both the surgeon and the patient. Some groups have challenged that performing plastic surgery procedures in an office-based facility compromises patient safety. Our study was done to determine whether outcomes are adversely affected by performing plastic surgery procedures in an accredited outpatient surgical center. A retrospective review was performed on 5316 consecutive cases completed between 1995 and 2000 at Dallas Day Surgical Center, Dallas, Texas, an outpatient surgical facility. Most cases were cosmetic procedures. All cases were analyzed for any potential morbidity or mortality. Complications requiring a return to the operating room were determined, as were infection rates. Events leading to inpatient hospitalization were also included. During this 6-year period, 35 complications (0.7 percent) and no deaths were reported. Most complications were secondary to hematoma formation (77 percent). The postoperative infection rate for patients requiring a return to the operating room was 0.11 percent. Seven patients required inpatient hospitalization following their procedure secondary to arrhythmias, angina, and pulmonary emboli. Patient safety must take precedence over cost and convenience. Any monetary savings or time gained is quickly lost if safety is compromised and complications are incurred. The safety profile of the outpatient facility must meet and even exceed that of the traditional hospital-based or ambulatory care facility. After reviewing our experience over the last 6 years that indicated few complications and no deaths, we continue to support the judicious use of accredited outpatient surgical facilities by board-certified plastic surgeons in the management of plastic surgery patients.

BACKGROUND The overexpression of eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) results in the up-regulation of gene products of mRNAs with long 5′ untranslated regions (5′ UTRs). The degree of gene amplification increases from the tumor free zone to the tumor core. This led the authors to hypothesize that the degree of eIF4E gene amplification and oncoprotein overexpression is progressive in the cells from normal head and neck tissue, to benign tumors, and eventually to invasive carcinomas (HNCA). METHODS Using competitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Western blot analysis, benign specimens from similar sites of 10 noncancer patients, 8 pleomorphic adenoma specimens, and 18 HNCA specimens were studied. DNA and protein extracts from each specimen were quantified for eIF4E gene copy number and level of eIF4E protein expression. RESULTS There was no detectable eIF4E gene amplification and oncoprotein overexpression in benign tissue from noncancer patients (1.1 ± 0.5 gene copy number [mean ± standard deviation] and 0.9 ± 0.5-fold protein elevation, respectively). Four of the eight pleomorphic adenomas analyzed showed eIF4E gene amplification of at least twofold, but none demonstrated protein elevation of any significance. In contrast, all HNCA specimens had detectable eIF4E gene amplification and protein overexpression. Furthermore, the mean degree of eIF4E gene amplification and overexpression was found to increase as cells from benign head and neck tissues (1.1 ± 0.5 and 0.9 ± 0.5), benign tumors (2.2 ± 1.3 and 1.02 ± 0.19), and HNCA (4.3 ± 1.2 and 15.5 ± 9.3) were compared. CONCLUSIONS Progressive eIF4E gene amplification and overexpression were detected when normal tissues, benign tumors, and HNCA were compared. The degree of gene amplification and overexpression is variable within each tissue category. However, progression to malignant phenotype appears to be associated with an increasing degree of eIF4E gene amplification and overexpression. Cancer 2000;88:2803–10. © 2000 American Cancer Society.