Preoperative Bariatric Surgery and the Risk of Readmission Following Total Joint Replacement

The purpose of this study was to compare nonelective and all-cause readmission rates and to identify risk factors for readmission of total joint arthroplasty (TJA) patients who had preoperative bariatric surgery (BS) compared with TJA patients without preoperative BS. The New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System database was queried to identify 343,710 TJA patients between 2005 and 2014. Three patient groups were evaluated: group 1 (patients with preoperative BS within 2 years of TJA [N=1478]); group 2 (obese patients without preoperative BS [N=60,259]); and group 3 (nonobese patients without preoperative BS [N=281,973]). Nonelective and all-cause readmission rates (30 days, 90 days, and 1 year) were compared, and multivariate analyses of readmission risk factors were performed. Group 1 had no significant difference in nonelective readmission rates compared with groups 2 and 3. However, when elective TJA readmissions were included, group 1 had significantly higher all-cause readmission rates at 30 days, 90 days, and 1 year compared with groups 2 and 3. Bariatric surgery was not a risk factor for nonelective readmissions at any time point. When elective TJA admissions were included, BS was an independent risk factor for all-cause readmission at all time points. Patients who have BS prior to TJA do not have higher nonelective readmission rates than obese TJA patients without BS. Bariatric surgery is not a risk factor for nonelective readmissions. However, BS is a significant predictor of elective TJA admissions up to 1 year following the index TJA. [Orthopedics. 2018; 41(2):107-114.].