Internal medicine consultation for high-risk surgical patients: reflection on hospital mortality and readmission rates in a low-income country

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the impact of internal medicine consultation on mortality, 30-day readmission, and length of stay in surgical patients. METHODS: This is a retrospective descriptive study developed in a public Brazilian teaching hospital with 850 beds. RESULTS: A total of 70,245 patients were admitted from 2010 to 2018 to the surgery departments. The main outcomes measured were patients’ mortality, 30-day readmission, and length of stay. Mortality of high-risk patients was lower when followed by internal medicine consultation: patients with ASA≥3 (RR 0.89 [95% confidence interval (95%CI) 0.80–0.99], p=0.02), patients with ASA≥3 plus≥65 years (RR 0.88 [95%CI 0.78–0.99], p=0.04), patients with ASA≥3 plus high-risk surgery (RR 0.86 [95%CI 0.77–0.97], p=0.01), and patients with ASA≥4 plus age ≥65 years (RR 0.83 [95%CI 0.72–0.96], p=0.01). The 30-day readmission of high-risk patients was lower when followed by internal medicine consultation: patients with ≥65 years (RR 0.57 [95%CI 0.37–0.89], p=0.01) and patients with high-risk surgery (RR 0.63 [95%CI 0.46–0.57], p=0.005). The Poisson multivariate regression with adjustment in variances showed that all the variables (namely, age, ASA, morbidity index, surgery risk, and internal medicine consultation) were associated with higher mortality of patients; however, internal medicine consultation was associated with a reduction of mortality in high-risk patients (RR 0.72 [95%CI 0.65–0.84], p=0.02) and an increase of mortality in low-risk patients (RR 1.55 [95%CI 1.31–1.67], p=0.01). CONCLUSION: High-risk surgical patients may benefit from perioperative internal medicine consultations, which probably decrease hospital mortality and 30-day hospital readmission.