Objective: To determine the effect of preoperative opioid use disorder (OUD) on postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and heart valve surgery.
Design: Retrospective, observational study using data from the State Inpatient Database and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.
Setting: Inpatient data from Florida, California, New York, Maryland, and Kentucky between 2007 and 2014.
Participants: A total of 377,771 CABG patients and 194,469 valve surgery patients age ≥18 years.
Interventions: None.
Measurements and main results: The prevalence of OUD was 2,136 (0.57%) in the CABG group and 2,020 (1.04%) in the valve surgery group. There was no significant difference in mortality between the OUD and non-OUD groups in both surgical cohorts (both p > 0.05). On adjusted analyses, preoperative OUD was significantly associated with increased adjusted odds ratios (aORs) of 30-day hospital readmission (CABG aOR 1.47 [95% confidence interval {CI} 1.30-1.66]; valve surgery aOR 1.41 [95% CI 1.27-1.56]) and 90-day hospital readmission (CABG aOR 1.47 [95% CI 1.31-1.64]; valve surgery aOR 1.33 [95% CI 1.23-1.43]). Preoperative OUD was significantly associated with increased adjusted risk ratios (aRRs) of hospital length of stay (CABG aRR 1.13 [95% CI 1.10-1.16]; valve surgery aRR 1.63 [95% CI 1.54-1.72]) and total hospitalization charges (CABG aRR 1.05 [95% CI 1.03-1.07]; valve surgery aRR 1.28 [95% CI 1.24-1.32]).
Conclusion: Preoperative OUD is significantly associated with poorer outcomes after cardiac surgery, including increased 30- and 90-day readmissions, hospital length of stay, and total hospitalization charges. Opioid use should be considered a modifiable risk factor in cardiac surgery, and interventions should be attempted preoperatively.
Keywords: Administrative database research; Cardiac surgery; Coronary artery bypass grafting; Opioid use disorder; Outcomes research; Valve surgery.
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