Risk factors for prolonged length of stay after colorectal surgery

Objective Colorectal surgeons often struggle to explain to administrators/payers reasons for prolonged length of stay (LOS). This study aim was to identify factors associated with increased LOS after colorectal surgery. Design The study population included patients from the 2007 American-College-of-Sur- geons-National-Surgical-Quality-Improvement-Program (ACS-NSQIP) database undergoing ileocolic resection, segmental colectomy, or anterior resection. The study population was divided into normal (below 75th percentile) and prolonged LOS (above the 75th percentile). A multivariate analysis was performed using prolonged LOS as dependent variable and ACS- NSQIP variables as predictive variables. P-value < 0.01 was considered significant. Results 12,269 patients with a median LOS of 6 (inter-quartile range 4-9) days were includ- ed. There were 2,617 (21.3%) patients with prolonged LOS (median 15 days, inter-quartile range 13-22). 1,308 (50%) were female, and the median age was 69 (inter-quartile range 57-79) years. Risk factors for prolonged LOS were male gender, congestive heart failure, weight loss, Crohn's disease, preoperative albumin < 3.5 g/dL and hematocrit < 47%, base- line sepsis, ASA class ≥ 3, open surgery, surgical time ≥ 190 min, postoperative pneumonia, failure to wean from mechanical ventilation, deep venous thrombosis, urinary-tract in- fection, systemic sepsis, surgical site infection and reoperation within 30-days from the primary surgery. Conclusion Multiple factors are associated with increased LOS after colorectal surgery. Our results are useful for surgeons to explain prolonged LOS to administrators/payers who are critical of this metric.