Healthcare disparities in revisits for complications after adult tonsillectomy.

OBJECTIVE

Determine if disparities exist for revisit complications after adult tonsillectomy.

METHODS

Cases of adult tonsillectomy were extracted from the state ambulatory surgery databases and linked to the state emergency department databases and inpatient databases for California, Iowa, Florida and New York for 2010 and 2011. Revisits within 14days for diagnoses of: post-tonsillectomy bleeding, acute pain and nausea/vomiting/dehydration were determined and analyzed for associations of these complications with age, sex, race, median household income and comorbidity score.

RESULTS

Among 17,836 tonsillectomies (63.7% female; mean age, 29.0years), revisit rates for post-tonsillectomy bleeding, acute pain and fever/dehydration were 5.1, 2.8 and 1.5%, respectively. On multivariate analysis, only female sex was associated with a lower post-tonsillectomy bleeding rate (odds, 0.48, p<0.001). Decreasing household income, female sex, black and Hispanic race were associated with increased revisits for acute pain (odds, 1.21, 1.49, 2.03 and 1.32, p≤0.002). Female sex was associated with an increased odds of a revisit for FNVD (odds, 1.94, p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Significant disparities with respect to income and race exist in the incidence of revisits and potentially avoidable complications after adult tonsillectomy.