Excess hospital length of stay and extra cost attributable to primary prolonged postoperative ileus in open alimentary tract surgery: a multicenter cohort analysis in China.

Background: Prolonged postoperative ileus (PPOI) reportedly leads to compromised postoperative recovery and increased healthcare costs. However, the evidence for this claim was obtained from studies that included patients with both primary and secondary PPOI. How primary PPOI affects the hospital length of stay (LOS) and healthcare costs is not well documented. A multicenter cohort analysis was performed to investigate the potentially detrimental effect of primary PPOI on hospital LOS and healthcare costs.

Methods: In total, 2083 patients who underwent open abdominal surgery from 22 tertiary hospitals in China were prospectively registered in a PPOI cohort. Of these, 1863 patients without secondary PPOI were analyzed. Poisson regression for hospital LOS and log-transformed linear regression for healthcare costs were performed to identify whether primary PPOI was an independent risk factor.

Results: The incidence of primary PPOI was 13.2% (246/1863). The median LOS was significantly longer in the PPOI than non-PPOI group (12 vs. 11 days, p < 0.001). The median healthcare cost was significantly higher in the PPOI than non-PPOI group (70,672 vs. 67,597 CNY, p = 0.016). Multivariate Poisson regression and log-transformed linear regression showed that 12% of prolonged LOS and 4.6% of healthcare costs were due to primary PPOI.

Conclusions: Primary PPOI is a potential source of prolonged hospital LOS and extra healthcare costs for patients undergoing open abdominal surgery. Cost-effective approaches are needed to manage and prevent primary PPOI.