According to the study, to be published in May 2009, the complication rate from patients hospitalized for bariatric surgery dropped from 24 percent to around 15 percent. Post-surgical infection rates dropped 58 percent, and abdominal hernias, staple leakage, respiratory failure and pneumonia fell by between 50 percent and 29 percent.
Rates for other complications remained relatively unchanged and ranged from 2.4 percent to 0.1 percent.
The study also noted that hospital payments for bariatric procedures fell from $29,563 to $27,905 and dropped from $41,807 to $38,175 for patients who experienced complications. The most expensive patients — those readmitted because of complications — saw their payments fall from $80,001 to $69,960.
In addition, the study found that the 6-month post-surgical death rate for patients operated on between 2005 and 2006 was 0.5 percent, which was statistically about the same as that of patients who had bariatric surgery between 2001 and 2002. Hospital readmissions because of complications fell 31 percent, and complication-caused same-day hospital outpatient clinic visits declined from approximately 15 percent to 13 percent, according to the release.
Read the AHRQ release on the new obesity surgery complications and cost study.
