Reduced Need for In-hospital Care After Sleeve Gastrectomy: a Single Center Observational Study.

Kakoulidis, Thanos P; Arvidsson, Dag; Graf, Wilhelm; Sundbom, Magnus

SETTING Private clinic, Stockholm, and nation-wide in-hospital care, Sweden. OBJECTIVES The use of sleeve gastrectomy (SG) for treatment of morbid obesity has increased worldwide, but information about long-term outcome is still limited. Our objective was to evaluate the need for additional in-hospital care after SG for obesity (body mass index [BMI] > 30) in 862 patients, all operated at a single center. METHODS Two national registries, the Inpatient Registry and the Death Registry, were used to collect long-term data on in-hospital care, grouped by the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) and mortality, respectively. RESULTS In-hospital care for SG-operated females was decreased for four groups of obesity-related ICD-10 diagnoses: endocrine and metabolic diseases and circulatory, digestive, and genitourinary diseases, as well as injuries and poisoning (p < 0.001 for all). However, female SG patients still required in-hospital care above the national level for women of corresponding ages. CONCLUSIONS Although a significant reduction in in-hospital care was observed, SG patients did not reach national levels.