Inflammatory Bowel Disease Adversely Impacts Colorectal Cancer Surgery Short-term Outcomes and Health-Care Resource Utilization

OBJECTIVES: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) compared to patients without IBD. There is a lack of population-based data evaluating the in-patient surgical outcomes of CRC in IBD patients. We sought to compare the hospital outcomes of CRC surgery between patients with and without IBD. METHODS: We used the National Inpatient Sample (2008–2012) and Nationwide Readmissions Database (NRD, 2013) and selected all adult patients (age ≥ 18 years) with ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn’s disease (CD) who underwent CRC surgery. Multivariate analysis for in-patient outcomes of postoperative complications, health-care resource utilization, readmission rate, and mortality were performed. RESULTS: A total of 397,847 patients underwent CRC surgery from 2008 to 2012, of which 0.8% (3,242) had IBD. Compared to CRC in non-IBD patients, CRC in IBD patients had longer length of stay (adjusted coefficient (AC) 0.86 days, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.42, 1.30), more likely developed postoperative complications (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.26, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.50), including postoperative infection (AOR 1.69, 95% CI: 1.20, 2.38) and deep vein thrombosis (AOR 2.42, 95% CI: 1.36, 4.28), and more frequently required blood transfusion (AOR 1.59, 95% CI: 1.30, 1.94). CRC in IBD patients was more likely to be readmitted within 30 days (AOR 1.44, 95% CI: 1.01, 2.04). CONCLUSION: At a population level, IBD adversely impacts outcomes at the time of CRC surgery.