Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 May;38(5):2746-2755.
doi: 10.1007/s00464-024-10763-5. Epub 2024 Apr 1.

Examining emergency department utilization following bariatric surgery

Cullen Roe  1 , Mark Mahan  2 , Jason Stanton  2 , Shengxuan Wang  2 , Alexandra Falvo  2 , Anthony Petrick  2 , David Parker  2 , Ryan Horsley  2
Affiliations

Examining emergency department utilization following bariatric surgery

Cullen Roe et al. Surg Endosc. 2024 May.

Abstract

Background: Emergency department (ED) utilization following surgery is poorly understood and places immense strain on the healthcare system, being responsible for up to $38 billion in wasteful spending annually. The aim of this study was to quantify ED utilization following bariatric procedures to identify causes and areas of improvement.

Materials and methods: A retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database was conducted for all patients who underwent metabolic bariatric surgery (MBS) between November 2006 and June 2019. The study includes 4703 patients across 8 hospitals in a single health system. Patients who returned to the ED within 30 and 90 days were analyzed for relation to surgery and preventability.

Results: Of the 4703 patients that underwent MBS, 907 (19.3%) visited the ED at least once within 90 days and 350 (7.4%) required hospital readmission. The most common bariatric procedure performed was the Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) (3716/4703) with an average BMI of 43.8. The median length between discharge and ED visit was 19 days. Under 50% of patients called prior to ED presentation and 61% of these ED visits resulted in discharge.

Conclusion: While hospital readmissions following MBS have been scrutinized in literature, investigation of ED utilization remains scarce. Our study is one of few to investigate postoperative ED utilization up to 90 days following bariatric intervention. A clear opportunity exists to improve discharge education and early post-discharge communication. This would additionally alleviate burden to allow focus on the acutely ill.

Keywords: Bariatric surgery; Comorbidities; Emergency department; Hospital readmissions; Preventable; Utilization.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. English WJ et al (2020) American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery 2018 estimate of metabolic and bariatric procedures performed in the United States. Surg Obes Relat Dis 16(4):457–463 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alsumali A et al (2018) Cost-effectiveness analysis of bariatric surgery for morbid obesity. Obes Surg 28(8):2203–2214 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ahmed A et al (2017) Readmissions and emergency department visits after bariatric surgery at Saudi Arabian Hospital: the rates, reasons, and risk factors. Obes Facts 10(5):432–443 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Brown CS et al (2020) Trends in emergency department utilization following common operations in New York State, 2005–2014. Surg Endosc 34(5):1994–1999 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chen J et al (2017) Preventing returns to the emergency department following bariatric surgery. Obes Surg 27(8):1986–1992 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources