Objective: We evaluated the association between postoperative hyperglycemia and outcomes after abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair.

Methods: We used diagnosis and procedure codes (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification) to identify patients who underwent open or endovascular repair of a nonruptured AAA from September 2008 to March 2014 from the Cerner Health Facts database (Cerner Corporation, North Kansas City, Mo). We evaluated the association between postoperative hyperglycemia (glucose concentration >180 mg/dL) and infections, in-hospital mortality, readmission, patients' characteristics, length of hospital stay, and medications. Multivariable logistic models examined the association of postoperative hyperglycemia with in-hospital infection and mortality.

Results: Of 2478 patients, 2071 (83.5%) had good postoperative glucose control (80-180 mg/dL), and 407 (16.5%) had suboptimal control (hyperglycemia). Patients who had postoperative hyperglycemia experienced longer hospital stays (9.5 vs 4.7 days; P < .0001), higher infection rates (18% vs 8%; P < .0001), higher in-hospital mortality (8.4 vs 1.2%; P <.0001), and more acute complications (ie, acute renal failure, fluid and electrolyte disorders, respiratory complications). After adjusting for patients' characteristics and medications, multivariable logistic regression models demonstrated that patients receiving postoperative insulin had nearly 1.6 times the odds of having an infectious complication (odds ratio [OR], 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.12-2.2; P = .007) than those who did not. Hyperglycemic patients had 3.5 times the odds of in-hospital mortality (OR, 3.48; 95% CI, 1.78-6.80 [P = .0003]; 2.3% vs 1.2%; P < .001). When stratified by procedure type, patients with hyperglycemia who underwent endovascular repair had nearly 2 times the odds of an infectious complication (OR, 1.85; 95% CI, 0.98-3.51; P = .05) and 7.5 times the odds of in-hospital mortality (OR, 7.54; 95% CI, 1.95-29.1; P = .003). Patients who underwent an open AAA repair and who had hyperglycemia had three times the odds of dying in the hospital (OR, 3.05; 95% CI, 1.29-7.21; P = .01).

Conclusions: Among patients undergoing elective AAA repair, approximately one in six had postoperative hyperglycemia. After AAA repair in patients with and without diabetes, postoperative hyperglycemia was associated with adverse events, including in-hospital mortality and infections. Compared with those who had open surgery, patients undergoing endovascular repair who had postoperative hyperglycemia had greater risk of infection and death. After controlling for insulin administration and postoperative hyperglycemia, a diabetes diagnosis was associated with lower odds of both infection and in-hospital mortality. Our study suggests that hyperglycemia may be used as a clinical marker as it was found to be significantly associated with inferior outcomes after elective AAA repair. This retrospective study, however, cannot imply causation; further study using prospective methods is needed to elucidate the relationship between postoperative hyperglycemia and patient outcomes.