Background
The efficacy of routine admission of high-risk patients to a critical care unit after surgery is not clear. The aim of our study was to investigate the association between critical care ...admission after scheduled colorectal surgery and postoperative complications, 30-day mortality, and length of stay in hospital.
Methods
A pre-defined secondary substudy of POWER study was performed. POWER study was a prospective multicenter observational study of patients undergoing elective primary colorectal surgery during a single period of two months of recruitment between September and December 2017.
Results
A total of 2084 patients from 80 Spanish hospitals were included, of which 722 (34.6%) were admitted to critical care unit (CCU) after elective surgery. After adjusting for confounding factors in the multivariate analysis, postoperative CCU admission was independently associated with a higher incidence of moderate-to-severe postoperative complications (adjusted OR 1.951, 95% CI 1.570, 2.425;
p
< 0.001). Regarding secondary outcomes, postoperative critical care admission was independently associated with higher 30-day mortality (adjusted OR 6.736; 95% CI 2.507, 18.101;
p
< 0.001) and independently associated with an increased hospital length of stay (adjusted OR 1.143, 95% CI 1.112, 1.175;
p
< 0.001).
Conclusions
Direct admission to CCU after scheduled colorectal surgery was not associated with a reduction in moderate-to-severe postoperative complications.
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