Study tracks 'post hospital syndrome' in patients undergoing elective outpatient surgery

Patients who have been hospitalized in the last 90 days and then have elective outpatient surgery are much more likely to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of undergoing that surgery, according to a recent study by researchers from Loyola University.

Paul C. Kuo, MD, chair of the department of surgery at Loyola University Medical Center and Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, and colleagues presented their findings about this condition—known as “post hospital syndrome” (PHS)—at the Western Surgical Association annual meeting in Napa Valley, Calif.

“Surgeons must consider all recent inpatient admissions when risk-stratifying patients for ambulatory, elective surgery,” the authors concluded, according to a Loyola University Health System press release.

The Loyola study looked at the records of more than 57,000 patients who underwent hernia repair in 2011, and more than 1,000 of those patients had PHS.

More than 7 percent of patients with PHS had to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of elective outpatient hernia surgery. The percentage of patients without PHS who had to be readmitted following the same procedure was 1.6.

Some potential explanations for this relationship between PHS and being readmitted after elective outpatient surgery include sleep deprivation as a result of hospitalization, impactful medications taken during hospitalization, and the fact that some patients may be asked to fast before certain surgeries or tests, which affects the body’s nutrition.