Overlapping surgery is safe for certain patient groups, according to research published in JAMA.
Researchers studied 66,430 adults who underwent common operations between January 2010 and May 2018. Twelve percent of the surgeries studied were overlapping. Outcomes such as in-hospital mortality, pneumonia, stroke and surgical site infections were recorded.
The key details to know:
1. Overlapping surgery was not associated with a significant difference in in-hospital mortality. The rate was1.9 percent for overlapping, compared to 1.6 percent for non-overlapping procedures.
2. The risk of complication was also not significantly higher for overlapping surgery, which had a 12.8 percent rate, compared to 11.8 percent for non-overlapping surgery.
3. Overlapping surgery was associated with increased mortality and complications in patients with a higher perioperative mortality and complication risk.
4. Overlapping surgery was also associated with an increase in surgery length.
5. Researchers concluded, "Among adults undergoing common operations, overlapping surgery was not significantly associated with differences in in-hospital mortality or postoperative complication rates but was significantly associated with increased surgery length. Further research is needed to understand the association of overlapping surgery with these outcomes among specific patient subgroups."