PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Older adults with serious illness before surgery use far more health care resources after surgery

Before having elective surgery, four out of five adults aged 66 and older had a palliative care need and two out of three had serious illness

2025-07-24
(Press-News.org)  Key Takeaways

Hospital stays, readmissions, emergency department visits, and costs were almost double for older adults with serious illness before elective surgery. Researchers identified four palliative care needs to target before surgery: Pain, depression, functional dependence, and a need for a care partner. Depression was the characteristic most strongly associated with increased health care utilization and costs after surgery. CHICAGO (July 24, 2025) — Older adults who have serious illness before undergoing elective surgery had hospital stays twice as long as similarly aged counterparts; were twice as likely to return to the hospital or the emergency department; and had almost double the yearly costs of health care, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

“We were looking at the palliative care needs of this group of patients to see whether we could identify points to intervene,” said lead study author Jolene Wong Si Min, MD, of the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the National Cancer Center Singapore and Singapore General Hospital. “These needs were high in older adults with serious illness and who were going for major elective surgery.”

The study used data from the Health and Retirement Survey linked to Medicare claims and analyzed data from 2,499 patients aged 66 and older who had major elective surgery between 2007 and 2019.

Key Findings

79% of the study population had one of four clinical characteristics indicating a need for palliative care before undergoing elective surgery: moderate to severe pain; depression; functional dependence; and a need for a care partner. 63% of this population had serious illness. Seriously ill older adults with palliative care needs before surgery had higher rates of total hospital stays compared with patients who did not have serious illness before surgery. Adjusted one-year health care costs averaged $38,187 for this population compared with $20,129 for those without serious illness. The study defined serious illness as any life-limiting condition that affects an individual’s quality of life or causes excessive strain on care partners. Palliative care, according to the authors, focuses on improving the quality of life through the relief of pain and psychological symptoms, addressing functional needs, and providing care partner support, among others.

“Among the four characteristics that we looked at, depression had the highest significance when it comes to having an association with health care utilization and costs,” Dr. Wong said. “If you were to choose any target to treat, it should be depression.”

Patients with serious illness and depression had significantly higher rates of health care utilization than patients without serious illness.

“An important next step would be to see how we can successfully incorporate palliative care practices in the care of seriously ill patients going for routine elective surgery,” Dr. Wong said.

While some health care advocates have held out a model of embedding palliative care specialists with surgical teams, Dr. Wong said the study authors believe training surgeons to be attentive to palliative care needs would be a more practical approach.

“Future research would be in a generalist palliative care model,” Dr. Wong said. “We feel strongly that surgeons should be trained to understand how palliative care applies to surgical practice because these needs are so common.”

Senior author of the study is Zara Cooper, MD, MSc, FACS, of the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Study co-authors are Yihan Wang, PhD; Evan Bollens-Lund, MA; Amanda J. Reich, PhD, MPH; Hiba Dhanani, MD; Claire K. Ankuda, MD, MPH; Stuart Lipsitz, ScD; Tamryn F. Gray, PhD, RN, MPH, ScD; Christine S. Ritchie, MD, MSPH; and Masami Tabata-Kelly, MBA, MA.

Citation: Wong Si Min J, Wang Y, Bollens-Lund E, Reich AJ, Dhanani H, Ankuda CK, Lipsitz S, Gray TF, Ritchie CS, Tabata-Kelly M, Cooper Z. Prevalence of Preoperative Palliative Care Needs and Associations with Healthcare Utilization and Costs Among Older Adults Undergoing Major Elective Surgery. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 2025. DOI: 10.1097/XCS.0000000000001491

# # #

About the American College of Surgeons
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The ACS is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The ACS has approximately 90,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. “FACS” designates that a surgeon is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Follow the ACS on social media: X | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook 

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Answer ALS Launches AI drug development collaboration with Tulane, Pennington Biomedical Research Center and GATC Health to advance ALS treatment discovery

2025-07-24
Answer ALS is proud to announce the launch of a groundbreaking collaborative initiative aimed at accelerating AI-powered drug discovery for ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. This effort, known as the Louisiana AI Drug Development Infrastructure for ALS (LADDIA), brings together leading institutions and innovators, including Tulane University, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and GATC Health - a tech-bio innovator using validated AI models to accelerate drug discovery from large-scale multiomics data-, to harness the power of artificial intelligence and one of the largest ALS datasets in the world. This ...

Study paves path to improved diagnosis, treatment of NUT carcinoma

2025-07-24
BOSTON, July 24, 2025 – The diagnosis of a suspected lung, head, and neck cancer called NUT carcinoma should include additional testing capable of detecting gene fusions that are definitive markers of the disease, according to a study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators. The study showed that more than 75 percent of patients with NUT carcinoma may not be immediately diagnosed because standard-of-care DNA testing does not detect NUT carcinoma fusion genes. Tests that can identify gene fusions that are specific to NUT carcinoma include NUT immunohistochemistry (IHC), RNA fusion testing, ...

Scientists discover how correlated disorder boosts superconductivity

2025-07-24
Superconductivity is a unique state of matter in which electric current flows without any energy loss. In materials with defects, it typically emerges at very low temperatures and develops in several stages. An international team of scientists, including physicists from HSE MIEM, has demonstrated that when defects within a material are arranged in a specific pattern rather than randomly, superconductivity can occur at a higher temperature and extend throughout the entire material. This discovery could help develop ...

BASILISK partners with The Planetary Society and CalTech’s IQIM to recruit the global esports audience in the movement to save science

2025-07-24
NEW YORK and SEATTLE – JULY 24, 2025 —  BASILISK, the global esports organization built to champion science, debuted two historic partnerships at the Esports World Cup 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this week – furthering its mission to elevate science advocacy through the global reach and cultural influence of competitive gaming. BASILISK’s new strategic partnerships with the California Institute of Technology’s Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM) and The Planetary Society create a powerful bridge between renowned scientific institutions and the next generation of STEM enthusiasts.  “To root for BASILISK is ...

International study reveals sex and age biases in AI models for skin disease diagnosis

2025-07-24
An international research team led by Assistant Professor Zhiyu Wan from ShanghaiTech University has recently published groundbreaking findings in the journal Health Data Science, highlighting biases in multimodal large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT-4 and LLaVA in diagnosing skin diseases from medical images. The study systematically evaluated these AI models across different sex and age groups. Utilizing approximately 10,000 dermatoscopic images, the study focused on three common skin diseases: melanoma, melanocytic nevi, and benign keratosis-like lesions. ...

The evolution of life may have its origins in outer space

2025-07-24
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a team of astronomers led by Abubakar Fadul from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) has discovered complex organic molecules – including the first tentative detection of ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile – in the protoplanetary disc of the outbursting protostar V883 Orionis. These compounds are considered precursors to the building blocks of life. Comparing different cosmic environments reveals that the abundance and complexity of such molecules increase from star-forming regions to fully evolved planetary systems. This suggests that the seeds of life are assembled in space and are widespread. The ...

Record-breaking ‘gigantic’ deep-sea limpet species named after ONE PIECE character

2025-07-24
Researchers from Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) have discovered a deep-sea limpet species 5,922 metres beneath the northwestern Pacific Ocean, marking the deepest known habitat for any true limpet (subclass Patellogastropoda). Described as a new species in the open-access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution, the limpet was found on hard volcanic rock 500 kilometres southeast of Tokyo, Japan. The gastropod measures up to 40.5 mm in shell length, a remarkably large size for a true limpet from ...

When should preventive mastectomy be offered for women at higher risk of breast cancer

2025-07-24
UNDER STRICT EMBARGO UNTIL 4PM (UK TIME) 11 AM (US EASTERN TIME) ON THURSDAY 24 JULY 2025  When should preventive mastectomy be offered for women at higher risk of breast cancer  Peer reviewed | Simulation/ modelling  More women at higher risk of breast cancer should be offered a mastectomy, according to researchers at Queen Mary and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. A new analysis has found that the surgical technique was a cost-effective way of reducing the likelihood of developing breast cancer compared to breast screening ...

Study compares common type 2 diabetes drugs, finding higher cardiovascular risk for one medication

2025-07-24
New research from investigators at Mass General Brigham suggests that a commonly used type 2 diabetes medication is linked to a higher rate of heart-related conditions compared to medications that hit other targets. The study examined nationwide data from nearly 50,000 patients treated with different sulfonylureas and found that glipizide – the most widely used drug in the U.S. within this category – was linked to higher incidence of heart failure, related hospitalization and death compared to dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors. ...

Reshaping tumor neighborhoods to give treatments a boost

2025-07-24
Cancer cells and tumors do not exist in a vacuum. Far from the isolation and self-sufficiency of the fictional Wakanda, tumors develop in and alter the nearby milieu of immune cells, connective tissue, blood vessels and a sea of proteins and carbohydrates that provide structure and other supportive functions. Cancer cells interact with this neighborhood — which scientists term the tumor microenvironment — in many ways, including obtaining extra resources needed to fuel their unchecked growth. Like a fishing trawler deploying its net, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Engineers develop solid lubricant to replace toxic materials in farming

Repurposing gemstone polishing waste to create smart cement

Patient-physician messaging by race, ethnicity, insurance type, and preferred language

Unrecognized motor difficulties and developmental coordination disorder in preschool children

Background genetic variants influence clinical features in complex disorders

Smarter battery tech knows whether your EV will make it home

Overactive microRNAs block fat cell development in progeria

Crosswalk confusion: MA drivers flummoxed by pedestrian hybrid beacons, find UMass Amherst researchers

Study shows heart disease mortality disproportionately burdens low-income communities in California

Intracardiac echocardiography recognized as ‘transformative’ imaging modality in new SCAI position statement

Study finds ‘man’s best friend’ slows cellular aging in female veterans

To get representative health data, researchers hand out fitbits

Hiring in high-growth firms: new study explores the timing of organizational changes

Boosting work engagement through a simple smartphone diary

Climate change may create ‘ecological trap’ for species who can’t adapt

Scientists create ChatGPT-like AI model for neuroscience to build one of the most detailed mouse brain maps to date

AI and omics unlock personalized drugs and RNA therapies for heart disease

2023 ocean heatwave ‘unprecedented but not unexpected’

Johns Hopkins researchers develop AI to predict risk of US car crashes

New drug combination offers hope for men with advanced prostate cancer

New discovery finds gene converts insulin-producing cells into blood-sugar boosters

Powerful and precise multi-color lasers now fit on a single chip

Scientists agree chemicals can affect behavior, but industry workers more reluctant about safety testing

DNA nanospring measures cellular motor power

Elsevier Foundation and RIKEN launch “Envisioning Futures” report: paving the way for gender equity and women’s leadership in Japanese research

Researchers discover enlarged areas of the spinal cord in fish, previously found only in four-limbed vertebrates

Bipolar disorder heterogeneity decoded: transforming global psychiatric treatment approaches

Catching Alport syndrome through universal age-3 urine screening

Instructions help you remember something better than emotions or a good night’s sleep

Solar energy is now the world’s cheapest source of power, a Surrey study finds

[Press-News.org] Older adults with serious illness before surgery use far more health care resources after surgery
Before having elective surgery, four out of five adults aged 66 and older had a palliative care need and two out of three had serious illness