Mortality rates after surgery in New South Wales

Studies have been conducted to determine 30-day and 365-day mortality rates after surgical procedures in different regions; however, there is a lack of data for mortality rates in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The aim of this study was to determine 30-day and 365-day post-operative mortality rates after selected common operations performed in NSW.

Using the Centre for Health Record Linkage, we linked the NSW Admitted Patient Data Collection with the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages and Australian Bureau of Statistics to retrospectively calculate 30-day and 365-day post-operative mortality rates for 21 selected surgical procedures between 2000 and 2009. One year (365 days) standardized mortality ratios, and proportion of public and private hospital admissions and mortality, were calculated for each procedure.

Thirty-day mortality was lower than in previous studies for femur fracture fixation (3.7%), cervical spine fusion (0.8%), prostatectomy (0.2%), coronary valve replacement (4.2%), pulmonary resection (2.5%), bariatric surgery (0.07%) and pancreaticoduodenectomy (6.2%). Thirty-day mortality was higher than previously reported for abdominal aortic aneurysm (12.6%) and tonsillectomy (0.02%). One-year mortality rates ranged from 0.2% for tonsillectomy and bariatric surgery, to 24.6% for hip fracture fixation.

Thirty-day mortality rates in NSW are similar, if not lower for most procedures when compared with rates reported in other studies. The reported mortality rates for each procedure allow clinicians and patients to be more informed of surgical risks.