The American surgeon
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The American surgeon · Feb 2012
Comparative StudyPreoperative functional health status impacts outcomes after ventral hernia repair.
Associated with the aging population is an increase in comorbidities and a decrease in the ability to perform basic daily activities. This is tracked within the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) as a patient's preoperative functional health status. Our goal was to evaluate the impact of preoperative functional status upon outcomes after ventral hernia repair. ⋯ Multivariable logistic regression was used to adjust for age, wound class, American Society of Anesthesiologists class, and case relative value units. A total of 76,397 patients were identified: 74,785 were independent (97.9%), 1,317 partially dependent (1.7%), and 295 totally dependent (0.4%). Totally dependent patients had an increased risk for all short-term outcomes after ventral hernia repair: wound occurrence, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, urinary tract infection, myocardial infarction, deep venous thrombosis, sepsis, return to the operating room, and death (P < 0.001 for all).