Prevalence of cannabis use disorder and perioperative outcomes in adult colectomy patients: A propensity score-matched analysis

Background: The decriminalization of cannabis across the United States has led to an increased number of patients reporting cannabis use prior to surgery. However, it is unknown whether preoperative cannabis use disorder (CUD) increases the risk of postoperative complications among adult colectomy patients. Methods: Adult patients undergoing an elective colectomy were retrospectively analyzed from the National Inpatient Sample database (2004–2018). To control for potential confounders, patients with CUD, defined using ICD-9/10 codes, were propensity score matched to patients without CUD in a 1:1 ratio. The association between preoperative CUD and composite morbidity, the primary outcome of interest, was assessed. Subgroup analyses were performed after stratification by age (≥50 years). Results: Among 432,018 adult colectomy patients, 816 (0.19%) reported preoperative CUD. The prevalence of CUD increased nearly three-fold during the study period from 0.8/1000 patients in 2004 to 2.0/1000 patients in 2018 (P-trend<0.001). After propensity score matching, patients with CUD exhibited similar rates of composite morbidity (140 of 816; 17.2%) as those without CUD (151 of 816; 18.5%) (p = 0.477). Patients with CUD also had similar anastomotic leak rates (CUD: 5.64% vs. No CUD: 6.25%; p = 0.601), hospital lengths of stay (CUD: 5 days, IQR 4–7 vs. No CUD: 5 days, IQR 4–7) (p = 0.415), and hospital charges as those without CUD. Similar findings were seen among patients aged ≥50 years in the subgroup analysis. Conclusions: Though the prevalence of CUD has increased drastically over the past 15 years, preoperative CUD was not associated with an increased risk of composite morbidity among adult patients undergoing an elective colectomy.