Patients Readmitted Within 1 Month of Ovarian Cancer Surgery Have Increased 1-Year Mortality

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, there is a significant association between 30-day hospital readmission following surgery for advanced ovarian cancer and 1-year mortality.

For the study, researchers sought to investigate the costs, rate, and risk factors associated with 30-day hospital readmission after advanced ovarian cancer surgery in a Medicare population. They identified 5,152 patients with stage 3C/4 ovarian, primary peritoneal, or fallopian tube cancer from the SEER-Medicare linked database. Of those, 1,003 patients with an average age of 75 years were readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge.

The common reasons for readmission were infection, dehydration, ileus/obstruction, metabolic/electrolyte abnormalities, and anemia. Interestingly, results shows that the year of discharge was highly associated with 30-day readmission. In addition, if a patient was in the hospital initially for a stay longer than 8 days or was discharged to a skilled nursing facility, she was more likely to be readmitted within 30 days of discharge.

Furthermore, 30-day readmission was significantly associated with 1-year mortality (P < 0.001). Researchers also found the median cost of readmission was $9,220 in 2010. The researchers suggest that interventions should be performed to reduce early readmission, improve patient outcomes, and decrease costs.