Readmissions after ovarian cancer cytoreduction surgery: The first 30 days and beyond

Factors associated with emergency room readmission after elective surgery for ovarian carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Hospital readmission is a quality metric of hospital care and has been studied in ovarian carcinoma, but its evaluation has several limitations. Also, emergency room (ER) readmission is considered an adverse effect because it represents patient costs. Therefore, our objective was to determine the rate of ER readmission, its causes, and associated factors.

METHODS

A retrospective study of 592 patients with ovarian carcinoma who underwent upfront surgery, neoadjuvant therapy, or surgery for recurrent disease. An analysis of factors associated with ER readmission, hospital readmission, and surgical complications was performed, including multivariate analysis to assess for case-mix factors.

RESULTS

Of 592 patients, the median age was 51 years, and the predominant type of treatment was the neoadjuvant approach (52.9%); 46% underwent upfront surgeries and six surgeries for recurrence. The ratio to ER readmission was 11.8% (70 patients), of whom 12 patients were admitted more than once. The factors associated with ER readmission were prolonged surgery, intraoperative bleeding, extended hospital stay, the time of the day when the surgery was performed, and post-surgical complications. The hospital readmissions were 4.2%, and the overall morbidity was 17.6%. In the multivariate analysis, the only factor associated with ER readmission was the presence of surgical complications (OR = 39.01). The factors independently associated with hospital readmission were the entrance to the intensive care unit (OR = 1.37), the presence of surgical complications (OR = 2.85), and ER readmission (OR = 1.45).

CONCLUSION

ER readmission is an adverse event representing the presence of symptoms/complications in patients. Evaluating the ER readmission independently of the readmission to the hospital is critical because it will allow modifying medical care behaviors to prevent patients from unnecessarily returning to the hospital after a hospital discharge to manage preventable medical problems.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

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Community access to primary care is an important geographic disparity among ovarian cancer patients undergoing cytoreductive surgery

Objective

Given the importance of understanding neighborhood context and geographic access to care on individual health outcomes, we sought to investigate the association of community primary care (PC) access on postoperative outcomes and survival in ovarian cancer patients.

Methods

This was a retrospective cohort study of Stage III-IV ovarian cancer patients who underwent surgery at a single academic, tertiary care hospital between 2012 and 2015. PC access was determined using a Health Resources and Services Administration designation. Outcomes included 30-day surgical and medical complications, extended hospital stay, ICU admission, hospital readmission, progression-free and overall survival. Descriptive statistics and chi-squared analyses were used to analyze differences between patients from PC-shortage vs not PC-shortage areas.

Results

Among 217 ovarian cancer patients, 54.4 % lived in PC-shortage areas. They were more likely to have Medicaid or no insurance and live in rural areas with higher poverty rates, significantly further from the treating cancer center and its affiliated hospital. Nevertheless, 49.2 % of patients from PC-shortage areas lived in urban communities. Residing in a PC-shortage area was not associated with increased surgical or medical complications, ICU admission, or hospital readmission, but was linked to more frequent prolonged hospitalization (26.3 % vs 14.1 %, p = 0.04). PC-shortage did not impact progression-free or overall survival.

Conclusions

Patients from PC-shortage areas may require longer inpatient perioperative care in order to achieve the same 30-day postoperative outcomes as patients who live in non-PC shortage areas. Community access to PC is a critical factor to better understanding and reducing disparities among ovarian cancer patients.

Frailty is independently associated with worse outcomes and increased resource utilization following endometrial cancer surgery

OBJECTIVE

Frailty has been associated with poorer surgical outcomes and is a critical factor in procedural risk assessment. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of frailty on surgical outcomes in patients with endometrial cancer.

METHODS

Patients undergoing inpatient gynecologic surgery for endometrial cancer were identified using the 2005-2017 Nationwide Inpatient Sample database. The Johns Hopkins Adjusted Clinical Groups frailty-defining diagnosis indicator was used to designate frailty. Multivariate regression models were used to assess the association of frailty with postoperative outcomes and resource use.

RESULTS

Of 339 846 patients, 2.9% (9868) were considered frail. After adjusting for patient and hospital characteristics, frailty was associated with a four-fold increase in inpatient mortality (adjusted OR (aOR) 4.1; p<0.001), non-home discharge (aOR 5.2; p<0.001), as well as increased respiratory (aOR 2.6; p<0.001), neurologic (aOR 3.3; p<0.001), renal (aOR 2.0; p<0.001), and infectious (aOR 3.2; p<0.001) complications. While frail patients exhibited increased mortality with age, the rate of mortality in this cohort decreased significantly over time. Compared with non-frail counterparts, frail patients had longer lengths of stay (7.6 vs 3.4 days; p<0.001) and increased hospitalization costs with surgical admission ($25 093 vs $13 405; p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Frailty is independently associated with worse surgical outcomes, including increased mortality and resource use, in women undergoing surgery for endometrial cancer. Though in recent years there have been improvements in mortality in the frail population, further efforts to mitigate the impact of frailty should be explored.