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. 2019 May;9(3):279-286.
doi: 10.1177/2192568218792053. Epub 2018 Jul 26.

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

Gaston Camino Willhuber  1 , Cristina Elizondo  1 , Pablo Slullitel  1
Affiliations

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

Gaston Camino Willhuber et al. Global Spine J. 2019 May.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Dindo-Clavien classification; hospital length of stay; postoperative complication; unplanned readmission.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Median hospital length of stay according to complication grade and complexity, significant differences were observed in patients with complications.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Median hospital length of stay in specific complications ordered by number of cases.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Median of days between surgery and specific complication.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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