Admission Time Affects Surgery for Renal Colic

Weekend admissions are less likely to undergo surgery than weekday admissions

FRIDAY, April 17 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with renal colic who are admitted on weekends are less likely to receive surgery than those admitted on weekdays; however, in the sickest patients, surgery is performed at the same rate regardless of the time of admission, according to a study published in the April issue of Urology.

Seth A. Strope, M.D., of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues reviewed records from the 2005 Florida State Inpatient Database on 8,589 patients.

Overall, the researchers found that patients admitted on weekends had a lower likelihood of undergoing surgery (odds ratio, 0.88) but that those with complicating factors such as fever were more likely to undergo surgery than those without complicating factors (adjusted odds ratio, 1.28). They also found that when surgery was performed there was no significant difference in the use of definitive surgery for weekend admissions compared to weekday admissions (adjusted odds ratio, 1.02).

"For less ill patients, the greater rates of intervention during the week might represent lowered thresholds for intervention or, alternatively, might represent an appropriate lowering of the morbidity of acute renal colic," the authors conclude.

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