Bariatric Surgery Hospital Readmissions in an Urban Academic Medical Center

Abstract

The primary aim is to describe hospital readmissions postbariatric surgery (sleeve gastrectomy [SG] and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass [RYGB]) in an urban academic medical center. The secondary aim is to determine whether certain sociodemographic and clinical variables are associated with bariatric surgery hospital readmissions. This is a retrospective study of a prospectively maintained database with 378 consecutive patients who underwent a minimally invasive SG or RYGB at our center between June 2015 and September 2016. Of the 378 patients, 86.5% (n = 327) were women. Surgeries were distributed as follows: 70.9% SG (265 laparoscopic and 3 robotic) and 29.1% RYGB (8 laparoscopic and 102 robotic). The 30-day reoperation rate was 1.59% (n = 6). The 30-day readmission rate was 4.8% (n = 18). The causes of 30-day readmissions were related mainly to poor oral tolerance (n = 13, 72.5%). The average length of hospitalization for 30-day readmissions was 3.2 (standard deviation = 3.0) days. Significant increases in 30-day readmission rates were found in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) (p = 0.003), hypertension (HTN) (p = 0.03), greater number of total comorbidities presurgery (p = 0.02), and postoperative complications (p < 0.0001). Patients with CKD, HTN, greater number of total comorbidities presurgery, and postoperative complications had significantly higher 30-day readmission rates than those who did not.