Table 1.

Patient characteristics and outcomes according to surgical approach

	Overall	Open	Laparoscopic	p-value
Patients, N (%)	6,806 (100.0)	3,395 (49.9)	3,411 (50.1)	-
Age in years, mean ± SD	68.3 ± 12.8	68.6 ± 13.0	68.1 ± 12.6	0.19
Female (%)	51.1	51.9	50.3	0.19
White race (%)	67.5	67.9	67.1	0.47
Medicare (%)	58.8	60.0	57.7	0.05
Medicaid (%)	2.5	3.2	1.8	<0.001
Comorbid medical conditions (%)a				<0.001
No medical co-morbidity	16.6	14.6	18.6
1 to 2 conditions	50.2	47.5	52.9
3 or more conditions	33.2	37.9	28.6
Node positive or metastatic cancer (%)	27.5	32.0	23.0	<0.001
Anatomic Resection (%)				<0.001
Right hemicolectomy	57.4	52.6	62.2
Left hemi-colectomy	31.3	32.6	30.1
Total or transverse colectomy	11.3	14.9	7.7
Patient-level outcomes
Intra-operative morbidityb	3.1	3.3	3.0	0.55
Post-operative morbidityc	27.7	32.1	23.3	<0.001
In-hospital mortality	1.0	1.2	0.7	0.05
Hospital length of stay in days, mean ± SD	7.0 ± 5.7	8.1 ± 6.1	6.0 ± 4.9	<0.001

^aComorbid conditions included alcohol abuse, deficiency anemias, rheumatoid arthritis, collagen vascular diseases, chronic blood loss anemia, congestive heart failure, chronic pulmonary disease, coagulopathy, depression, diabetes with and without complications, hypertension with and without complications, hypothyroidism, liver disease, fluid and electrolyte disorders, neurological disorders, obesity, peripheral vascular disease, psychoses, pulmonary circulatory disorders, renal failure, cardiac valvular disease, and recent weight loss

^bIncludes accidental puncture, laceration, and hemorrhage complicating a procedure

^cIncludes mechanical wound, infectious, urinary, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular complications