ITH RATES INCREASINGover the last decade, 1 bariatric surgery has become the second most common abdominal operation in the United States. Despite trends toward declining mortality rates, 2 payers and patient advocacy groups remain concerned about the safety of bariatric surgery and uneven quality across hospitals. In response, 2 major professional organizations-the American College of Surgeons and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery-have implemented programs for accrediting hospitals as centers of excellence (COE) in bariatric surgery. Standards for COE accreditation vary somewhat between the programs, but they generally include minimum procedure volume standards, availability of specific protocols and resources for managing morbidly obese patients, and submission of outcomes data to a central registry.Context Despite the growing popularity of bariatric surgery, there remain concerns about perioperative safety and variation in outcomes across hospitals.Objective To assess complication rates of different bariatric procedures and variability in rates of serious complications across hospitals and according to procedure volume and center of excellence (COE) status.Design, Setting, and Patients Involving 25 hospitals and 62 surgeons statewide, the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collaborative (MBSC) administers an externally audited, prospective clinical registry. We evaluated short-term morbidity in 15 275 Michigan patients undergoing 1 of 3 common bariatric procedures between 2006 and 2009. We used multilevel regression models to assess variation in risk-adjusted complication rates across hospitals and the effects of procedure volume and COE designation (by the American College of Surgeons or American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery) status.Main Outcome Measure Complications occurring within 30 days of surgery.Results Overall, 7.3% of patients experienced perioperative complications, most of which were wound problems and other minor complications. Serious complications were most common after gastric bypass (3.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.2%-4.0%), followed by sleeve gastrectomy (2.2%; 95% CI, 1.2%-3.2%), and laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (0.9%; 95% CI, 0.6%-1.1%) procedures (PϽ.001). Mortality occurred in 0.04% (95% CI, 0.001%-0.13%) of laparoscopic adjustable gastric band, 0 sleeve gastrectomy, and 0.14% (95% CI, 0.08%-0.25%) of the gastric bypass patients. After adjustment for patient characteristics and procedure mix, rates of serious complications varied from 1.6% (95% CI, 1.3-2.0) to 3.5% (95% CI, 2.4-5.0) (risk difference, 1.9; 95% CI, 0.08-3.7) across hospitals. Average annual procedure volume was inversely associated with rates of serious complications at both the hospital level (Ͻ150 cases, 4.

With better weight loss than LAGB and lower complication rates than RYGB, SG is a reasonable choice for the treatment of morbid obesity and should be covered by both public and private payers.

The outcomes of bariatric surgery vary considerably across patients, but the association of race with these measures remains unclear. OBJECTIVE To examine the association of race on perioperative and 1-year outcomes of bariatric surgery. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Propensity score matching was used to assemble cohorts of black and white patients from the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collaborative who underwent a primary bariatric operation (Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, or adjustable gastric banding) between June 2006 and January 2017. Cohorts were balanced on baseline characteristics and procedure. Conditional fixed-effects models were used to evaluate the association of race on outcomes within hospitals and surgeons. Data analysis occurred from June 2006 through August 2018. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Thirty-day complications and health care resource utilization measures, as well as 1-year weight loss, comorbidity remission, quality of life, and satisfaction. RESULTS In each group, 7105 patients were included. Black patients had a higher rate of any complication (628 [8.8%] vs 481 [6.8%]; adjusted odds ratio, 1.33 [95% CI, 1.17-1.51]; P = .02), but there were no significant differences in the rates of serious complications (178 [2.5%] vs 135 [1.9%]; adjusted odds ratio, 1.32 [95% CI, 1.05-1.66]; P = .29) or mortality (5 [0.10%] vs 7 [0.10%]; adjusted odds ratio, 0.73 [95% CI, 0.23-2.31]; P = .54). Black patients had a greater length of stay (mean [SD], 2.2 [3.0] days vs 1.9 [1.7] days; adjusted odds ratio, 0.30 [95% CI, 0.20-0.40]; P < .001), as well as a higher rate of emergency department visits (541 [11.6%] vs 826 [7.6%]; adjusted odds ratio, 1.60 [95% CI, 1.43-1.79]; P < .001) and readmissions (414 [5.8%] vs 245 [3.5%]; adjusted odds ratio, 1.73 [95% CI, 1.47-2.03]; P < .001). At 1 year, black patients had lower mean total body weight loss and as a percentage of weight (32.0 kg [26%]; vs 38.3 kg [29%]; P < .001) and this held true across procedures. Remission of hypertension was lower for black patients (564 [40.0%] vs 1096 [56.0%]; P < .001), but the rate of sleep apnea remission (467 [62.6%] vs 615 [56.1%]; P = .005) and gastroesophageal reflux disease (309 [78.6%] vs 453 [75.4%]; P = .049) were higher. There were no significant differences in remission of diabetes with insulin dependence, diabetes without insulin dependence,or hyperlipidemia hyperlipidemia. Fewer black patients than white patients reported a good or very good quality of life (1379 [87.2%] vs 2133 [90.4%]; P = .002) and being very satisfied with surgery (1908 [78.4%] vs 2895 [84.2%]; P < .001) at 1 year. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Black patients undergoing bariatric surgery in Michigan had significantly higher rates of 30-day complications and resource utilization and experienced lower weight loss at 1 year than a matched cohort of white patients. While sleep apnea and gastroesophageal reflux disease remission were higher and hypertension remission lower in black patients, comorbidity remission was otherwise similar be...

Safety culture is associated with rates of serious surgical complications in bariatric surgery. Although nurses provide better information about hospital safety culture, surgeons are better judges of safety culture in the operating room. Interventions targeting safety culture, particularly coordination and communication, seem to be important for quality improvement.

A prospective controlled randomized study was performed on 100 patients undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy to evaluate the benefit of routine drainage in simple uncomplicated procedures. The 100 patients were randomized into two groups. Group 1 patients (n = 50) had a drain placed through the epigastric trocar site. The drain was removed before their discharge unless bile or blood was present. Group 2 patients (n = 50) did not have a drain placed. Eleven patients in group 2 (no drain) (22%) were discharged on the same day of surgery (within 8 h), and the remaining 89 patients in both groups were discharged the day after surgery (within 23 h). There were no wound infections or postoperative fever in either group. There were minor but not statistically significant differences between the two groups in postoperative severity and duration of abdominal pain, shoulder pain, and nausea. Furthermore, the two groups were similar in respect to postoperative recovery time and return to work.

Gallstones are a common complication after rapid weight loss from SG. Our data suggest that gallstone formation during the weight loss period is not associated with amount or rate of weight loss both during the early or late postoperative period.

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BACKGROUND The United States Food and Drug Administration recently issued a warning about adverse events in patients receiving inferior vena cava (IVC) filters. OBJECTIVE To assess relationships between IVC filter insertion and complications while controlling for differences in baseline patient characteristics and medical venous thromboembolism prophylaxis. DESIGN Propensity‐matched cohort study. SETTING The prospective, statewide, clinical registry of the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collaborative. PATIENTS Bariatric surgery patients (n=35,477) from 32 hospitals during the years 2006 through 2012. INTERVENTION Prophylactic IVC filter insertion. MEASUREMENTS Outcomes included the occurrence of complications (pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, and overall combined rates of complications by severity) within 30 days of bariatric surgery. RESULTS There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics among the 1,077 patients with IVC filters and in 1,077 matched control patients. Patients receiving IVC filters had higher rates of pulmonary embolism (0.84% vs 0.46%; odds ratio [OR], 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.6‐6.5; P=0.232), deep vein thrombosis (1.2% vs 0.37%; OR, 3.3; 95% CI, 1.1‐10.1; P=0.039), venous thromboembolism (1.9% vs 0.74%; OR, 2.7; 95% CI, 1.1‐6.3, P=0.027), serious complications (5.8% vs 3.8%; OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.0‐2.4; P=0.031), permanently disabling complications (1.2% vs 0.37%; OR, 4.3; 95% CI, 1.2‐15.6; P=0.028), and death (0.7% vs 0.09%; OR, 7.0; 95% CI, 0.9‐57.3; P=0.068). Of the 7 deaths among patients with IVC filters, 4 were attributable to pulmonary embolism and 2 to IVC thrombosis/occlusion. CONCLUSIONS We have identified no benefits and significant risks to the use of prophylactic IVC filters among bariatric surgery patients and believe that their use should be discouraged. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2013;8:173–177. © 2013 Society of Hospital Medicine