The Impact of Age and Need for Emergent Surgery in Paraesophageal Hernia Repair Outcomes.

Overall, 2082 (10.9%) of 19,122 patients with PEHs underwent urgent or emergent repair. Patients undergoing nonelective surgery were significantly older than patients undergoing elective surgery (median age, 73 years [interquartile range, 63-82 years] vs 66 years [interquartile range, 58-74 years]) and had a lower preoperative performance score (P < .001). Nonelective surgical procedures were more likely to be performed through the chest or by laparotomy rather than by laparoscopy (20% vs 11.4%; P < .001), and they were associated with longer hospitalizations (4 days vs 2 days; P < .001), higher operative mortality (4.5% vs 0.6%; P < .001), and higher major morbidity (27% vs 5.5%; P < .001). Nonelective surgery was a significant independent predictor of major morbidity in multivariable analysis (odds ratio, 2.06; P < .001). Patients more than the age of 80 years had higher operative mortality (4.3% vs 0.6%; P < 0.001) and major morbidity (19% vs 6.1%; P < .001) than younger patients overall, and these older patients more often had nonelective surgery (26% vs 8.6%; P < .001) CONCLUSIONS: The operative morbidity of PEH repair is significantly increased when surgery is nonelective, particularly for older patients. These results can inform the potential consequences of choosing watchful waiting vs elective PEH repair.