THURSDAY, Jan. 10 (HealthDay News) -- There were reductions in hospital stays for patients undergoing prostatectomy and cystectomy in 2004 to 2005, compared to those undergoing the procedures in 1992 to 1993, according to research published in the January issue of The Journal of Urology.
Bruce L. Jacobs, M.D., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues analyzed Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare data (1992 to 2005) to identify 46,781 prostatectomy and 9,035 cystectomy cases. The main outcome was adjusted likelihood of hospital readmission within 30 days.
The researchers found that hospital stay decreased approximately three days for both surgeries (relative decrease of more than 50 percent for prostatectomy and 21 percent for cystectomy) when comparing patients from 1992-1993 to 2004-2005. For prostatectomy and cystectomy, respectively, hospital readmission rates were 4.5 and 25.2 percent, and remained stable with time. The use of skilled nursing/intermediate care was stable for patients who underwent prostatectomy (about 1 percent), but increased from 8.2 to 18.9 percent for those undergoing cystectomy. Home care utilization increased from 8.1 to 11.1 percent for prostatectomy and from 34.2 to 47.5 percent for cystectomy cases.
"Reductions in hospital stay were more dramatic for patients who underwent prostatectomy and were associated with stable short-term outcomes," the authors write.
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