Analysis of Postoperative Complications in Spinal Surgery, Hospital Length of Stay, and Unplanned Readmission: Application of Dindo-Clavien Classification to Spine Surgery

• Published in: Global spine journal 2019-05, Vol.9 (3), p.279-286
• Main Authors: Camino Willhuber, Gaston, Elizondo, Cristina, Slullitel, Pablo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Back surgery; Original; Patient admissions; Surgery
• ISSN: 2192-5682; 2192-5690
• DOI: 10.1177/2192568218792053

Study Design: Retrospective study. Level of evidence III. Objective: Postoperative complications in spine surgery are associated with increased morbidity, hospital length of stay, and health care costs. Registry of complications in orthopedics and the spine surgery is heterogeneous. Methods: Between July 2016 and June 2017, 274 spinal surgeries were performed, the presence of postoperative complications was analyzed at 90 days (according to the classification of Dindo-Clavien, grades I-V), hospital length of stay, surgical complexity (low, medium, and high), unplanned readmission, and risk factors were evaluated. Results: A total of 79 patients suffered a complication (28.8%), of them 21 (26.7%) were grade I, 24 (30.3%) were grade II, 4 (5.7%) were grade IIIA, and 29 (37.3%) were grade IIIB. There were no IV and V grade cases. The most frequent complication was excessive pain followed by deep wound infection and anemia. Surgical complexity and surgical time were significantly associated with the risk of developing a complication. The average number of hospital length of stay in patients without and with complications were 2.7 and 10.6, respectively, and the unplanned readmission rate was 11%. Conclusions: Registry of postoperative complications allows the correct standardization and risk factors required to establish measures to decrease them, the application of Dindo-Clavien classification was useful for the purpose of our study.