Adverse outcomes after minimally invasive surgery for pelvic organ prolapse in women 65 years and older in the United States

Introduction and hypothesis To describe complications at the time of surgery, 90-day readmission and 1-year reoperation rates after minimally invasive pelvic organ prolapse (POP) in women > 65 years of age in the US using Medicare 5% Limited Data Set (LDS) Files. Methods Medicare is a federally funded insurance program in the US for individuals 65 and older. Currently, 98% of individuals over the age of 65 in the US are covered by Medicare. We identified women undergoing minimally invasive POP surgery, defined as laparoscopic or vaginal surgery, in the inpatient and outpatient settings from 2011-2017. Patient and surgical characteristics as well as adverse events were abstracted. We used logistic regression for complications at index surgery and Cox proportional hazards regression models for time to readmission and time to reoperations. Results A total of 11,779 women met inclusion criteria. The mean age was 72 (SD +/- 8) years; the majority were White (91%). Most procedures were vaginal (76%) and did not include hysterectomy (68%). The rate of complications was 12%; vaginal hysterectomy (aOR 2.4, 95% CI 2.2-2.7) was the factor most strongly associated with increased odds of complications. The 90-day readmission rate was 7.3%. The most common reason for readmission was infection (2.0%), three quarters of which were urinary tract infections. Medicaid eligibility (aHR 1.5, 95% CI 1.3-1.8) and concurrent sling procedures (aHR 1.2, 95% CI 1.04-1.4) were associated with a higher risk of 90-day readmission. The 1-year reoperation rate was 4.5%. The most common type of reoperation was a sling procedure (1.8%). Obliterative POP surgery (aHR 0.6, 95% CI 0.4-0.9) was associated with a lower risk of reoperation than other types of surgery. Conclusions US women 65 years and older who are also eligible to receive Medicaid are at higher risk of 90-day readmission following minimally invasive surgery for POP with the most common reason for readmission being UTI.