Incidence and costs of bleeding-related complications in French hospitals following surgery for various diagnoses

BACKGROUND Limited information is available on the epidemiology and economics of bleeding during surgery in France. METHOD The objective of this study was to examine the incidence, costs and length of stay (LOS) of bleeding-related complications during various surgical procedures. RESULTS Amongst all 88 different surgical DRGs recognised by the French database 24 (totalling 321,657 hospitalisations) yielded WB rates ≥10% (range 10.3-25.3%). The highest DRG rates were for transplantations, cardiac and major orthopaedic surgery, vascular and solid organ surgery. CONCLUSIONS The present study for France demonstrates a significant increase of hospital LOS and associated costs following post-surgical bleeding, supporting the need for blood conservation strategies.