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Association of gastrostomy placement on hospital readmission in premature infants

Journal of Perinatology volume 39, pages 1485–1491 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

We sought to determine the association of gastrostomy placement on post-NICU-discharge resource utilization in premature infants.

Study design

We performed a propensity-matched retrospective cohort study of NICU infants born under 32-week gestation in US Children’s Hospitals. Multivariable logistic regression and propensity score-matching were used to determine the association of gastrostomy placement on 90-day hospital readmissions and emergency department visits adjusting for salient patient characteristics.

Result

A total of 12,621 premature infants were included of which 697 (5.5%) underwent gastrostomy placement. After propensity matching, infants who underwent gastrostomy placement have a higher rate of 90-day inpatient readmission (41.9 vs 26.3%, p < 0.001) and emergency department visit (27.1 vs 16%, p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Premature infants who undergo gastrostomy placement have increased the risk of inpatient readmission and emergency department visits after NICU discharge. Gastrostomy placement likely is both a driver and marker for increased resource utilization in premature infants post-NICU discharge.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (T35DK103596, TLD, and JU) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (1K08HS025776, BTB).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pediatric Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, USA

    Timothy L. Duncan, Julius Ulugia & Brian T. Bucher

Authors
  1. Timothy L. Duncan
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  2. Julius Ulugia
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  3. Brian T. Bucher
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Contributions

TLD conceptualized the design of the study; contributed to the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data; drafted the article and revised the manuscript. JU significantly contributed to the design of the study, data analysis and critically reviewed the manuscript for intellectual content. BTB conceptualized the design of the study, supervised data acquisition and analysis, and critically reviewed the manuscript for intellectual content. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brian T. Bucher.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Duncan, T.L., Ulugia, J. & Bucher, B.T. Association of gastrostomy placement on hospital readmission in premature infants. J Perinatol 39, 1485–1491 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-019-0504-9

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