Open abdominal surgery: a risk factor for future laparoscopic surgery?

BackgroundThis study seeks to investigate the outcomes of laparoscopic procedures in patients with previous open abdominal surgery.MethodsUsing data from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (2005 to 2009), we identified patients who had undergone laparoscopic cholecystectomy, Nissen fundoplication, Heller myotomy, splenectomy, Roux-en-Y, sleeve gastrectomy, gastric band, appendectomy, or colectomy. Patients were then classified as to whether adhesiolysis (AD) was also carried out. Bivariate and multivariate analysis was used to compare groups.ResultsA total of 162,415 patients met our inclusion criteria, comprising 4,501 (3%) in the AD group and 157,913 (97%) in the nonadhesiolysis (NAD) group. Patient who had received lysis of adhesion were older, had 41% higher odds of overall complications, 17% higher adjusted mean lysis of adhesion (P < .001), and 26% higher adjusted mean operation duration (P < .001).ConclusionsA history of previous open abdominal surgery increases the potential complication rate and hospital length of stay during subsequent laparoscopic surgery. The extent of this relationship deserves further investigation.