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The rise of quality indicators in neurosurgery: 30-day unplanned reoperation rate evaluated in 3760 patients—a single-center experience

  • Original Article - Neurosurgery general
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Acta Neurochirurgica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

Quality indicators are emerging as tools to evaluate health care outcomes. Few studies have evaluated indicators suitable for neurosurgery so far. Among others, reoperation rate has been suggested as a possible indicator. We aimed to evaluate the reoperation rate in a large neurosurgery adult collective.

Methods

In this exploratory post hoc analysis, we evaluated all patients operated in our service for elective and emergency surgery between January 2014 and May 2016. Planned and unplanned reoperations were filtered and a quantitative analysis, including uni- and multivariate analyses, was performed.

Results

A total of 3760 patients were included in this evaluation. From 378 reoperated patients within 30 days (10.1%), 51 underwent planned procedures (1.4%). Three hundred twenty-seven patients (8.7%) represented the analyzed collective of patients having undergone unplanned surgical procedures, causing a total of 409 from 4268 additional procedures (9.6%). Early unplanned 7-day reoperation rate was 4.5% (n = 193), occurring in 4.5% of patients (n = 193). Postoperative hemorrhage (n = 107, 26.2%) and external ventricle drainage-associated infections or dislocation (n = 105, 25.7 %) were the most common indication for unplanned surgery.

Conclusion

Unplanned re-operation rate of a neurosurgical service can help to internally evaluate health care outcome and improve quality of care. Benchmarking with this indicator however is not recommendable as results can vary distinctly due to the heterogenic patient collective of each institution. We expect unplanned reoperation rates to be higher in large university hospitals and tertiary centers with complex cases, as compared to center with less complex cases treating patients with lower morbidity. In this study, we deliver an authentic portrait of a large neurosurgical center in Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, A1, 48149, Munster, Germany

    Eric Suero Molina, Cheyenne Schildmacher, Sönke Josua Hellwig, Walter Stummer & Stephanie Schipmann

  2. Institute of Medical Informatics, University of Münster, Munster, Germany

    Justin Doods

  3. Controlling Department, University Hospital of Münster, Munster, Germany

    Moritz Freistühler

Authors
  1. Eric Suero Molina
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  2. Cheyenne Schildmacher
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  3. Justin Doods
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  5. Sönke Josua Hellwig
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  6. Walter Stummer
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  7. Stephanie Schipmann
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Correspondence to Eric Suero Molina.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Suero Molina, E., Schildmacher, C., Doods, J. et al. The rise of quality indicators in neurosurgery: 30-day unplanned reoperation rate evaluated in 3760 patients—a single-center experience. Acta Neurochir 162, 147–156 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-019-04146-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-019-04146-2

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