BackgroundUnder the constraints of the increasingly tight medical environment and market economy, day surgery has a good development trend and attracts more and more attention from clinicians. To investigate the feasibility and safety of unilateral simple renal cyst decortication by retroperitoneal laparoscopy in the day ward and to compare the advantages and disadvantages of conventional inpatient ward.MethodsA total of 41 patients with unilateral simple renal cysts meeting surgical indications were included in this study. The patients were divided into the day ward group and inpatient ward group by the patients' wishes. The indexes of operation time, time of hospitalization, intraoperative blood loss, time of postoperative extubation, postoperative complication rate, patients’ satisfaction rate, quality of life scores and total costs of hospitalization were compared between the two groups.Results41 cases of unilateral simple renal cyst decortication were completed successfully. Patients were followed up 10–12 months after surgery. CT or b-ultrasound examination indicated that the original renal cyst had been decorticated surgically and no recurrence of the cyst was observed after 10 months of postoperative follow-up. Time of postoperative extubation were (9.7 ± 1.8) hours and (20.8 ± 5.5) hours, total hospitalization costs were (5790 ± 99.8) RMB and (7496 ± 120.6) RMB, time of hospitalization were (22.7 ± 1.4) hours and (46.4 ± 11.3) hours in the day ward group and the inpatient ward group, respectively. In the above three aspects, the differences between the two groups were statistically significant (P < 0.05).ConclusionIn this study, we concluded that the retroperitoneal laparoscopy for unilateral simple renal cyst decortication in patients aged between 48 and 80 years, with no previous history of abdominal surgery, unilateral renal cysts (Bosniak grades I or II) on CT, ASA grades I or II, and no surgical or anesthetic contraindications, was safe and feasible in the day ward. Its obvious advantages of reducing time of hospitalization and total costs of hospitalization were worthy of clinical promotion.