Exploratory analysis on the association of mental health disorders with in-hospital postoperative complications and mortality in head and neck cancer surgery.

Background: The objective was to assess the association of mental health disorders with in-hospital complication and mortality rates in patients undergoing head and neck cancer surgery.

Methods: In this exploratory retrospective study, the Nationwide Inpatient Sample was queried from 2003 to 2014 for all patients with a diagnosis of head and neck cancer who underwent surgery. Univariate cross-tabulation, logistic regression, and propensity score matching (PSM) were used to compare demographics, procedure-related variables, and in-hospital postoperative complications and mortality between patients with and without selected comorbid mental health disorders.

Results: Of 39 600 included patients, 3390 (8.6%) had a selected comorbid mental health disorder diagnosis. After PSM, patients with selected mental health disorders had increased risk of overall medical complications on multivariable analysis (OR 1.28 [CI 1.12-1.46], P < 0.001) but not overall surgical complications or mortality.

Conclusions: Patients with a mental health disorder diagnosis have increased risk of in-hospital medical, certain surgical, and total complications.