Clinical and economic burden of surgical complications during hospitalization for digestive cancer surgery in France

Abstract

Background: Surgical complications and particularly infections after digestive cancer surgery remain a major health and economic problem and its burden in France is not well documented. Aims: The aim of this study was to analyse recent data regarding surgical complications in patients undergoing major digestive cancer surgery, and to estimate its burden for the French society. Methods and Results: Using the 2018 French hospital discharge database and 2017 National CostStudy we studied hospital stays for surgical resection in patients withdigestive cancer. The population was divided into three groups based onpostoperative outcomes: no complications (NC), related infectious complications (RIC) and other complications. The main analysis compared the length and cost per stay between RIC and NC. Forty-Four thousand one hundred and twenty-three stays following a digestive cancer resection were identified. Lower gastro-intestinal cancers were the most prevalent representing 74.8% of stays, the rate of malnutrition was 32.8% and 15.8% of patients presented RIC. Mean (SD) length of stay varied from 11,7 (9.0) days for NC to 25,5 days (19.5) for RIC (p < 0.01). The mean cost per patients' stay (SD) varied from €10 641 (€ 5897) for the NC to €18 720 (€7905) for RIC (p 15%) and was associated with significantly longer length of stay and higher cost per stay. Although important prevention plans have been implemented in recent years, care strategies are still needed to alleviate the burden on patients and the healthcare system.