Surgical patients with cannabis use disorder were linked with higher odds of a 30-day hospital readmission, compared to patients who did not use cannabis, according to a first-of-its-kind study led by anesthesiologists at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Researchers found that patients with a diagnosed cannabis use disorder more often required advanced postprocedural health care — such as admission to an intensive care unit — compared to non-users. However, patients whose use of cannabis was not classified as a disorder had lower odds of requiring advanced health care after surgery and shorter hospital stays compared to patients who never use cannabis.
Researchers analyzed data from patients who underwent non-cardiac surgery in Boston between 2008 and 2020. The study was published in The Lancet’s eClinical Medicine.
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Co-authors included first author Elena Ahrens, Luca J. Wachtendorf, Laetitia S. Chiarella, Sarah Ashrafian, Aiman Suleiman, Tim M. Tartler, Basit A. Azizi, Guangqing Chen, Amnon A. Berge, Denys Shay, Valerie Banner-Goodspeed, Haobo Ma, and Kevin P. Hill, of BIDMC; Bijan Teja, of University of Toronto; and Matthias Eikermann of Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
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