THURSDAY, April 18 (HealthDay News) -- After elective colectomy, patients with diverticular disease (DD) have worse outcomes and higher costs than patients with colon cancer (CC) but better outcomes and lower costs than patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to a study published in the April issue of JAMA Surgery.
Kyle J. Van Arendonk, M.D., from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and colleagues compared outcomes and costs among 74,879 adults undergoing elective surgery of the descending colon or subtotal colectomy and diagnosed with either DD (50.52 percent), CC (43.48 percent), or IBD (6.00 percent).
After adjusting for other variables, the researchers found that patients with DD were at significantly higher risk than CC patients to die in the hospital (odds ratio [OR], 1.90), develop a postoperative infection (OR, 1.67), and have an ostomy placed (OR, 1.87). Patients with DD also had significantly higher adjusted total hospital charges ($6,678.78 higher) and a significantly longer hospital stay (one day longer) compared with CC patients. However, patients with IBD fared worst of all, with the highest in-hospital mortality, highest rates of complications and ostomy placement, highest hospital charges, and longest hospital stay.
"Despite undergoing the same procedure, patients with DD have significantly worse and more costly outcomes after elective colectomy compared with patients with CC but better than patients with IBD," Van Arendonk and colleagues conclude.
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