Modeling the variation in length of stay for appendectomy and cholecystectomy interventions in the emergency general surgery

Abstract

Emergency general surgery can often represent a challenge in the clinical practice. This is partially due to the annual growth in the overall number of hospital admissions, especially in developed countries, and to the increasing percentage of elderly patients requiring care procedures. In literature, it is known that, when compared to the elective surgical interventions, the procedures in the emergency general surgery are characterized by a significantly higher morbidity and mortality rates and, not least prolonged length of stay (LOS), which constitutes a relevant metric reflecting both the patient satisfaction and the overall quality of the health services. In this paper, we sought to investigate on length of stay (LOS) variation for appendectomy and cholecystectomy interventions in the emergency general surgery by using a multiple regression analysis, with the purpose of identifying those factors that have the highest contribution in increasing the LOS.