The overlooked factor: The impact of disability on postoperative complications after emergency general surgery procedures

Background Despite more than 61 million people in the United States living with a disability, studies on the impact of disability on health care disparities in surgical patients remain limited. Therefore, we aimed to understand the impact of disability on postoperative outcomes. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort study using the Nationwide Readmission Database (2019). We compared patients ≥18 years undergoing emergency general surgery procedures with a disability condition with those without a disability. In accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, disability was defined as severe hearing, visual, intellectual, or motor impairment/caregiver dependency. The primary outcome was 30-day readmission rates. Secondary outcomes included hospital length of stay and 30-day complications and mortality. Patients were 1:1 propensity-matched using patient, procedure, and hospital characteristics. Results Among our population of 378,733 patients, 5,877 (1.6%) patients had at least 1 disability condition. A higher proportion of patients with a disability had low household income, $1 to $45,999, and an Elixhauser Comorbidity score ≥3. Among 5,768 matched pairs, patients with a disability had a significantly higher incidence of 30-day readmission (17.2% vs 12.7%; P < .001), infectious complications (29.8% vs 19.5%; P < .001), and a longer length of stay (8 vs 6 days; P < .001). Motor impairment, the most common disability, was associated with the greatest increase in patient readmission, morbidity, and length of stay. Conclusion Severe intellectual, hearing, visual, or motor impairments were associated with higher readmission, morbidity, and longer length of stay. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms responsible for these disparities and to develop interventions to ameliorate them.