Johnson SC, et al. – Aim of this research was to assess recent temporal trends in postoperative complication rates following radical cystectomy (RC) applying a large national dataset. It was showed that RC remains a procedure correlated with high morbidity. In the recent era of enhanced recovery protocols, complication rates have not changed significantly, nevertheless, there has been a consistent decline in length of stay and use of blood transfusion.

Methods

• Researchers distinguished patients undergoing RC applying recent procedural terminology codes using the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program participant use files from 2010 to 2015.
• They compared demographic information as well as 30-day complications, length of stay (LOS), readmission and death according to year of operation using univariable and multivariable analysis.

Results

• Researchers distinguished 6,510 patients for analysis over the 6 year period analyzed.
• In this analysis, age and comorbidity were similar across the study period.
• They applied a robotic technique in 5.8% of the entire cohort which did not differ among years.
• A total of 15.9% of patients underwent a continent urinary diversion, with a trend toward decreased use in recent years, 31.5% of patients experienced a complication and this did not differ significantly among years, and 40.7% of patients required a blood transfusion overall with a trend toward decreased use.
• The data suggested that LOS decreased over time from 10.6 days in 2010 to 9.2 days in 2015 (P<0.01) whereas readmissions increased slightly over the time period to 21.4% in 2015 (P<0.01).