Perioperative complications of emergent and elective procedures in psychiatric patients

Mental illness comorbidity significantly impacts surgical outcomes for emergency surgical patients

BACKGROUND

Whilst both mental illness comorbidity and the delivery of emergency surgery are commonplace in Australia, there is little evidence investigating any link between them. As such, this study examines the emergency surgical outcomes for patients with mental illness compared to other surgical patients within the Australian public surgical system.

METHODS

Retrospective cohort study involving adult emergency and elective surgical patients treated at three public hospitals in Sydney, Australia between 2018 and 2019. Patients were identified using ICD-10 diagnosis codes, and grouped by those with decompensated mental illness, chronic depression, or those without mental illness. Outcome measures included those within the emergency department (ED), along with in-hospital mortality and surgical outcomes.

RESULTS

Of 48 338 total patients, 31 890 (66.0%) had elective and 16 448 (34.0%) had emergency surgery. For patients with decompensated mental illness, only 228 (0.7%) had elective whilst 425 (2.6%) had emergency surgery. Their outcomes for this surgery type included being triaged significantly higher (Cat 1 or 2, 34% vs. 15%) and longer ED stays (8.3 vs. 6.6 h). They also had significantly more post-operative complications (26% vs. 8%) and total days in hospital (33.8 vs. 8.5 days). There was no significant difference for in-hospital mortality.

CONCLUSION

Patients with mental illness are significantly more likely to have emergency surgery including presenting to the ED with more acute physical illness and to experience worse surgical outcomes compared to other surgical patients for every measure analyzed except mortality. There is considerable opportunity to further investigate how these differences might be improved.

Burden of Social and Behavioral Determinants of Health on Infectious Complications in Emergency General Surgery

Background: Infectious complications lead to worse post-operative outcomes and are used to compare hospital performance in pay-for-performance programs. However, the impact of social and behavioral determinants of health on infectious complication rates after emergency general surgery (EGS) remains unclear. Patients and Methods: All patients undergoing EGS in the 2019 Nationwide Readmissions Database were included. The primary outcome of the study was the rate of infectious complications within 30 days, defined as a composite outcome including all infectious complications occurring during the index hospitalization or 30-day re-admission. Secondary outcomes included specific infectious complication rates. Multivariable regression analyses were used to study the impact of patient characteristics, social determinants of health (insurance status, median household income in the patient's residential zip code), and behavioral determinants of health (substance use disorders, neuropsychiatric comorbidities) on post-operative infection rates. Results: Of 367,917 patients included in this study, 20.53% had infectious complications. Medicare (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26-1.34; p < 0.001), Medicaid (aOR, 1.24; 95% CI,1.19-1.29; p < 0.001), lowest zip code income quartile (aOR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.13-1.22; p < 0.001), opioid use disorder (aOR,1.18; 95% CI,1.10-1.29; p < 0.001), and neurodevelopmental disorders (aOR, 2.16; 95% CI, 1.90-2.45; p < 0.001) were identified as independent predictors of 30-day infectious complications. A similar association between determinants of health and infectious complications was also seen for pneumonia, urinary tract infection (UTI), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) sepsis, and catheter-association urinary tract infection (CAUTI). Conclusions: Social and behavioral determinants of health are associated with a higher risk of developing post-operative infectious complications in EGS. Accounting for these factors in pay-for-performance programs and public reporting could promote fairer comparisons of hospital performance.

Impact of Mental Health on General Surgery Patients and Strategies to Improve Outcomes

Mental Health Disorders (MHD) are a growing concern nationwide. The significant impact MHD have on surgical outcomes has only recently started to be understood. This literature review investigated how mental health impacts the outcomes of general surgery patients and what can be done to make improvements. Patients with schizophrenia had the poorest surgical outcomes. Mental health disorders increased post-surgical pain, hospital length of stay, complications, readmissions, and mortality. Mental health disorders decreased wound healing and quality of care. Optimizing outcomes will be best accomplished through integrating more effective perioperative screening tools and interventions. Screenings tools can incorporate artificial intelligence, MHD data, resilience and its biomarkers, and patient mental health questionnaires. Interventions include cognitive behavioral therapy, virtual reality, spirituality, pharmacology, and resilience training.

Do entrepreneurial orientation and intellectual capital influence SMEs' growth? Evidence from Pakistan

This research analyzes the impacts of intellectual capital (IC) and the balancing power of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on innovation growth (IG) in Pakistan's SME sector. A quantitative approach on smart PLS has been applied through the SEM model, backed by a survey to gather primary data from 256 participants of Pakistan's SME sector. A significant effect of human capital on Pakistani firms' IG was identified. In contrast, the effect of structural capital was determined to be insignificant over the IG of Pakistani firms. On the other hand, the customer capital's effect was also significant over Pakistani firms' innovation growth. Little moderation of EO between human capital and IG has been determined. The moderations of "EO between human capital and innovation growth" and "EO between structural capital and innovation growth" were insignificant. However, the moderation of EO between customer capital and IG was significant. The scope of this study is limited to firms in Pakistan and can be extended to firms in other regions, which can provide broad findings.

Comparison of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery Rates and 30-Day Postoperative Complications Between Patients With and Without Psychiatric Diagnoses

BACKGROUND

Psychiatric comorbidity is associated with greater 30-day postoperative complication rates in various surgical specialties, but is not well characterized for reconstructive plastic surgery.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to compare reconstructive plastic surgery rates and 30-day postoperative complications between patients with and without psychiatric diagnoses.

METHODS

This was a retrospective cohort study comparing patients with and without psychiatric diagnoses. Data for January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2015 were collected from the IBM MarketScan Commercial and Medicare Supplemental Databases. Rates of reconstructive plastic surgery, demographic data, covariant diagnoses, and 30-day postoperative complications were collected. Differences between the 2 groups were assessed by multivariable logistic regression.

RESULTS

Among 1,019,128 patients (505,715 with psychiatric diagnoses and 513,423 without psychiatric diagnoses) assessed, reconstructive plastic surgery rates were between 4.8% and 7.0% in those with psychiatric diagnoses, compared with 1.6% in patients without psychiatric diagnoses. The greatest odds of undergoing reconstructive plastic surgery were in patients with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 3.16; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.76-5.67) and anxiety disorder (aOR, 3.08; 95% CI, 2.97-3.17). When assessing 1,234,206 patients (613,400 with psychiatric diagnoses and 620,806 without psychiatric diagnoses), all of whom underwent reconstructive plastic surgery, 2-fold greater odds of any 30-day postoperative complication was associated with psychiatric diagnoses (aOR, 2.01; 95% CI, 1.28-3.11), as well as greater odds of specific complications (surgical site infection, bleeding, and hospital admission). Eating disorder diagnosis was associated with the greatest odds of a complication (aOR, 4.17; 95% CI, 3.59-4.86), followed by nasal surgery (aOR, 3.65; 95% CI, 2.74-4.89), and BDD (aOR, 3.16; 95% CI, 1.76-5.67).

CONCLUSIONS

Diagnosis of a psychiatric condition is associated with greater rates of reconstructive plastic surgery, and 2-fold greater odds of 30-day postoperative complications.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4

Surgical outcomes for people with serious mental illness are poorer than for other patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

To assess the association between having a serious mental illness and surgical outcomes for adults, including in-hospital and 30-day mortality, post-operative complications, and hospital length of stay.

STUDY DESIGN

Systematic review and meta-analysis of publications in English to 30 July 2018 of studies that examined associations between having a serious mental illness and surgical outcomes for adults who underwent elective surgery. Primary outcomes were in-hospital and 30-day mortality, post-operative complications, and length of hospital stay. Risk of bias was assessed with the Quality in Prognosis Studies (QUIPS) tool. Studies were grouped by serious mental illness diagnosis and outcome measures. Odds ratios (ORs) or mean differences (MDs), with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), were calculated in random effects models to provide pooled effect estimates.

DATA SOURCES

MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, and the Cochrane Library.

DATA SYNTHESIS

Of the 3824 publications identified by our search, 26 (including 6 129 806 unique patients) were included in our analysis. The associations between having any serious mental illness diagnosis and having any post-operative complication (ten studies, 125 624 patients; pooled effect: OR, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.15-1.79) and a longer stay in hospital (ten studies, 5 385 970 patients; MD, 2.6 days; 95% CI, 0.8-4.4 days) were statistically significant, but not those for in-hospital mortality (three studies, 42 926 patients; OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 0.69-2.12) or 30-day mortality (six studies, 83 013 patients; OR, 1.85; 95% CI, 0.86-3.99).

CONCLUSIONS

Having a serious mental illness is associated with higher rates of post-operative complications and longer stays in hospital, but not with higher in-hospital or 30-day mortality. Targeted pre-operative interventions may improve surgical outcomes for these vulnerable patients.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION

PROSPERO, CRD42018080114 (prospective).