Introduction: Video capsule endoscopy (VCE) has become the accepted evaluation of choice for patients with suspected small bowel bleeding. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of early as compared to delayed inpatient VCE on post-index hospitalization readmission rates.
Methods: We performed a retrospective study using medical claims from the IBM® Marketscan® Commercial Database from January 1, 2004, through September 30, 2018, including adult patients that underwent an inpatient VCE. Early VCE was defined as occurring on days 0, 1, or 2 of the index hospitalizations, whereas delayed VCE was performed on days 3-7. Propensity matching was performed to create an analytic cohort, and outcomes were assessed using logistic regression.
Results: Following propensity score matching, 607 patients undergoing early VCE were matched 1:1 with 607 patients undergoing delayed VCE. The median patient age was 65 (IQR: 56-78) years, and 560 (37.9%) of the included patients were female. The mean time to VCE was 1.6 (± 0.6) days for the early VCE group and 4.0 (± 1.2) days from admission for delayed VCE. In unadjusted comparisons, we found no significant difference between early VCE and delayed VCE with respect to 90-day all-cause readmission (18.6% vs. 17.0%, P = 0.5) or 90-day rebleeding risk (10.5% vs. 8.7%, P = 0.331). Patients undergoing an early VCE had a shorter hospital LOS and less total hospitalization charges.
Conclusion: Early as compared to delayed inpatient VCE was associated with a reduction in index hospitalization resource utilization. No differences were found with respect to reductions in readmissions or rebleeding events.
Keywords: Gastrointestinal bleeding; Readmission; Small bowel bleeding; Video capsule endoscopy.
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