Hospitalizations and Emergency Department Visits in Heart Failure Patients after Bariatric Surgery

Abstract Background Heart failure is a disease with significant healthcare utilization, and a prioritized target for readmission prevention. Although obesity is related to heart failure morbidity, the effects of bariatric surgery in obese patients with heart failure are not well studied. Objectives This study aimed to evaluate the impact of bariatric surgery on hospital-based healthcare utilization for patients with heart failure. Setting Administrative statewide database. Methods The New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System database was used to identify patients with obesity and heart failure who underwent bariatric surgery from 2005 to 2015. Emergency Department (ED) visits and hospitalization records one-year pre-surgery and up to two-year post-surgery were compared. Results Our study identified 899 patients with heart failure who underwent bariatric surgery. In the year pre-surgery, 11.48% of patients had any ED visit or hospitalization with a primary diagnosis of heart failure. The rate decreased drastically in the first year after surgery, with only 3.70% of patients having any heart failure related hospital visits. The rate of heart failure related visits was also lower in the second year post-surgery (3.44%) compared to the year before surgery. The risk of heart failure related hospital visits was lower in both the 1st year (OR 0.29; 95% CI, 0.19-0.43) and 2nd year post-surgery (OR 0.26; 95% CI, 0.17-0.41; p Conclusions These findings suggest that bariatric interventions might be associated with a decreased risk of ED visits or hospitalizations due to heart failure exacerbations in obese patients with pre-existing heart failure.