Back to 2025 Abstracts
CO-MORBID GASTROPARESIS IS ASSOCIATED WITH HIGHER LIKELIHOOD OF READMISSION AND REOPERATION AFTER METABOLIC AND BARIATRIC SURGERY
Safraz Hamid
*, Elena Graetz, Eric B. Schneider, Saber Ghiassi, Karen E. Gibbs
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
Background: Metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) is effective for managing obesity; however, concurrent conditions such as gastroparesis may impact postoperative recovery. In the general population, gastroparesis imposes a high disease burden for both the patient and the healthcare system. Demographic and clinical profiles of patients with gastroparesis undergoing MBS, as well as their readmission patterns are not well reported.
Methods: Hospital discharge data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's National Readmission Database from 2016 through 2021 were examined. Patients with a primary diagnosis code for obesity undergoing sleeve gastrectomy (SG) or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) during their index admission were included in the analysis. Patient demographics, comorbidities, 30-day readmissions, and 30-day reoperations were compared between patients with and without gastroparesis.
Results: A total of 940,974 patients meeting criteria were identified, 4,601 (0.5%) of whom had a comorbid diagnosis of gastroparesis at the index admission. Patients with gastroparesis were older (median age: 47 vs. 43 yrs, p<0.001), had a lower BMI (median: 42.5 vs. 47.5, p<0.001), and were proportionally more likely to undergo a RYGB (64.4% vs. 29.9%, p<0.001) than those without gastroparesis. Patients with gastroparesis were more likely to have Medicare coverage (31.6% vs. 13.6%, p<0.001) and were more likely to have diabetes (63.2% vs. 26.9%, p<0.001), hypertension (68.8% vs. 52%, p<0.001), and chronic pulmonary disease (32.1% vs. 19.3%, p<0.001). Although mean time until the first readmission did not differ (11.8 vs. 11.9 days, p=0.883) between the two groups of patients, those with gastroparesis were observed to have overall higher rates of readmission (7.8% vs. 3.4%, p<0.001). Patients with gastroparesis were also proportionally more likely to undergo a reoperation (2.4% vs. 1.0%, p<0.001).
Discussion: Patients with gastroparesis had a higher prevalence of comorbid conditions and experienced elevated rates of 30-day readmissions and reoperations than those without. Surgeons should consider counseling patients with comorbid gastroparesis on this heightened rate of readmission and reoperation.
Back to 2025 Abstracts
