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Impact of Gastrointestinal Surgical Site Wound Complications on Long-term Healthcare Utilization

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery

Abstract

Importance

Wound complication following gastrointestinal surgery substantially impacts the quality and costs of surgical care. The impact of wound complication on subsequent long-term healthcare utilization has not been fully studied.

Objective

We assessed the impact of surgical wound complication on inpatient and outpatient healthcare utilization in the 2 years after gastrointestinal (GI) surgery.

Design

An observational retrospective cohort study was conducted on Veterans Affairs health system patients who underwent an inpatient GI surgical procedure, were assessed by the Veterans Affairs Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP), and were discharged alive from Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals between October 1, 2007 and September 30, 2014.

Setting

Population-based

Participants

A total of 64,351 patients underwent a GI surgical procedure in the VA system between 2007 and 2014. The cohort was 93.5% male, with a median age of 63.0 years (interquartile range (IQR) 57.0–70.0). A total of 7880 patients (12.2%) had at least one reported wound complication, 5460 of which had their postoperative wound complication classified by a VASQIP nurse.

Exposure

VASQIP-assessed or ICD-9-coded wound complication in the 30 days after surgery

Main Outcome Measurements

Inpatient visits, total inpatient days, outpatient visits, and emergency department visits, and operative interventions up to 2 years after discharge from index admission

Results

Patients with a postoperative wound complication had greater inpatient healthcare utilization compared with no-wound complication for up to 2 years after surgery: inpatient admissions (mean number 3.5 vs. 2.8; P < .001), inpatient bed days (mean 41.0 vs. 25.0; P < .001). Patients with a postoperative wound complication also had greater 2-year outpatient utilization than the no-wound complication cohort: outpatient visits (mean number 92.7 vs. 75.9; P < .001) and emergency department visits (mean 3.5 vs. 2.7; P < .001). The same relationship held for wound-related parameters; inpatient admissions (2.2 vs. 0.4; P < .001); inpatient bed days (21.4 vs. 3.7; P < .001); and outpatient visits (56.2 vs. 9.7; P < .001). A greater proportion of patients in the wound complication cohort had an operative intervention for all time intervals examined (P < .001).

Conclusions

Surgical wound complications impact healthcare utilization patterns for up to 2 years after the index procedure including hospital readmissions and operative interventions; efforts to reduce postoperative wound complications will have substantial effects on patient outcomes and healthcare expenditures well beyond the 30-day postoperative period.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford University School of Medicine, Alway Building, Room M121, 300 Pasteur Drive, MC 5115, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Tanmaya D. Sambare, Laura A. Graham, Shawn Moshrefi & Mary T. Hawn

  2. Veterans Affairs Boston, Boston, MA, USA

    Kamal M. F. Itani

  3. University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Melanie S. Morris

Authors
  1. Tanmaya D. Sambare
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  2. Laura A. Graham
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  3. Kamal M. F. Itani
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  4. Melanie S. Morris
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  5. Shawn Moshrefi
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  6. Mary T. Hawn
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Contributions

Study concept and design: TS, LG, MH. Acquisition of data: LG. Analysis and interpretation of data: TS, LG, KI, MM, SM, MH. Drafting of the manuscript: TS, LG, KI, MM, SM, MH. Critical revision and final approval of the manuscript: TS, LG, MH, KI, MM, SM, MH.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mary T. Hawn.

Ethics declarations

The study was reviewed and approved by the VA Central Institutional Review Board with a waiver of informed consent.

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Sambare, T.D., Graham, L.A., Itani, K.M.F. et al. Impact of Gastrointestinal Surgical Site Wound Complications on Long-term Healthcare Utilization. J Gastrointest Surg 25, 503–511 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11605-019-04489-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11605-019-04489-2

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