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Are schizophrenic patients who undergo general surgery at excess risk for postoperative complications? Researchers in Taiwan used their national health insurance database to perform a population-based study to examine this issue.
About 9000 schizophrenic patients underwent major surgery between 2004 and 2007; each patient was matched (by age, sex, type of surgery, and type of anesthesia) with four controls who had no psychiatric diagnoses. Schizophrenic patients, compared with controls, had significantly higher 30-day incidences of major medical complications (6.2% vs. 3.9%) and death (1.1% vs. 0.4%). In analyses that were adjusted for preexisting comorbidities and other potential confounders, schizophrenic patients still had significantly h…