Patients with migraine undergoing surgery are at increased risk of 30-day hospital readmission due to pain, a recent study found. This hospital registry study examined 150,710 patients, aged 18 years or older, who underwent surgery with general anesthesia and mechanical ventilation between 2007 and 2015 at a tertiary care center and 2 affiliated community hospitals in Massachusetts. Researchers found:
- Migraine was associated with an increased risk of 30-day pain-related readmission after surgery (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.42).
- The association was stronger for migraine with aura (compared to migraine without aura: adjusted OR 1.69; compared to no migraine: adjusted OR 2.20).
- The predicted adjusted risk of pain-related 30-day readmissions was 9.1 in 1000 surgical patients with migraine with aura and 5.4 in 1,000 patients with migraine without aura, compared to 4.2 in 1000 patients with no migraine.
- Furthermore, migraine was associated with an increased risk of postsurgical 30-day readmission due to a priori defined migraine-related pain (headache or abdominal pain) (adjusted OR 1.55).
Platzbecker K, Zhang MB, Kurth T, et al. The association between migraine and hospital readmission due to pain after surgery: A hospital registry study. [Published online ahead of print July 8, 2018]. Cephalalgia. doi:10.1177/0333102418786457.