Assessing the safety of outpatient ventral hernia repair: a NSQIP analysis of 7666 patients

Purpose: Given the paucity of literature on outpatient ventral hernia repair (VHR), and that assessment of the safety of outpatient surgical procedures is becoming an active area of investigation, we have performed a multi-institutional retrospective analysis benchmarking rates of 30-day complications and readmissions and identifying predictive factors for these outcomes. Methods: National surgical quality improvement project data files from 2011 to 2012 were reviewed to collect data on all patients undergoing outpatient VHR during that period. The incidence of 30-day peri-operative complication and unplanned readmission was surveyed. We created a multivariate regression model to identify predictive factors for overall, surgical, and medical complications and unplanned readmissions with proper risk adjustment. Results: 30-day complication and readmission rates in outpatient VHR were acceptably low. 3 % of the queried outpatients experienced an overall complication, 2.1 % a surgical complication, and 1.1 % a medical complication. 3.3 % of all patients were readmitted within 30 days. Upon multivariate analysis, predictors of overall complications included age, BMI, history of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and total operation time, predictors of surgical complications included age, BMI, total operation time, predictors of medical complications included total operation time, and predictors of unplanned readmissions included history of COPD, bleeding disorder, American Society of Anesthesiologists Class 3, 4, or 5, total operation time, and use of the laparoscopic technique. Conclusion: We have demonstrated that the risk of peri-operative morbidity in VHR as granularly defined in our study is low in the outpatient setting. Identification of predictive factors will be important to patient risk stratification.