Safety of outpatient laparoscopic cholecystectomy in the elderly: analysis of 15,248 patients using the NSQIP database.

Background: Studies have shown that laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) in an ambulatory setting is a safe alternative to the traditional overnight hospital stay. However, there are limited data on the morbidity and mortality of outpatient LC in elderly patients. We evaluated the safety of ambulatory LC in the elderly and identified risk factors that predict inpatient admission.

Study Design: A retrospective analysis was performed using the American College of Surgeon's NSQIP database between 2007 and 2010. The database was searched for patients older than 65 years of age who underwent elective LC at all participating hospitals in the United States. Data from 15,248 patients were collected and we compared patients who underwent ambulatory procedures with those patients who were admitted for an inpatient stay.

Results: Seven thousand four hundred and ninety-nine (48.9%) patients were ambulatory and 7,799 (51.1%) were nonambulatory. Postoperative complications included mortality (0.2% vs 1.5%; p < 0.001), stroke (0.1% vs 0.3%; p < 0.001), myocardial infarction (0.1% vs 0.6%; p < 0.001), pulmonary embolism (0.1% vs 0.3%; p = 0.005), and sepsis (0.2% vs 0.7%; p < 0.001) for ambulatory and nonambulatory cases, respectively. We identified significant independent predictors of inpatient admission and mortality, including congestive heart failure, American Society of Anesthesiologists class 4, bleeding disorder, and renal failure requiring dialysis.

Conclusions: We believe ambulatory LCs are safe in elderly patients as demonstrated by low complication rates. We identified multiple risk factors that might warrant inpatient hospital admission.