Postoperative revisits and readmissions after facelift surgery

To determine 30-day rates and reasons for revisit and readmission after rhytidectomy surgery.

Cross-sectional analysis.

Cross-sectional analysis was performed of multistate ambulatory surgery and hospital databases. Ambulatory rhytidectomy cases were extracted from State Ambulatory Surgery Databases for New York, Florida, Iowa, and California for 2010 and 2011. Cases were linked to State Emergency Department and Inpatient Databases for visits occurring 1 to 30 days postoperatively.

A total of 6,089 rhytidectomy cases were extracted (87.9% female). The mean age was 61.1 years, and the most common age group was 61 to 70 years (40.2%), followed by 51 to 60 years (33.2%), and 71 to 80 years (12.0%). Overall, 3.6% of patients had a revisit after surgery (42.7% to an ambulatory surgery center, 42.2% to an emergency department, and 15.1% to inpatient admission). The most common primary diagnoses at the time of the revisit were hematoma (17.0%), fever/nausea/diarrhea (4.1%), and urinary tract infection (4.1%).

Rhytidectomy is performed to treat facial aging, and can provide surgical outcomes which may not be achievable with nonsurgical alternatives. The 30-day revisit and readmission rate for this procedure in a large multistate cohort has not previously been reported. The revisit rate is low after rhytidectomy, and the most common reason for revisit is hematoma. These data provide important insight to optimize perioperative management and decrease postoperative revisits. This study does not capture return visits to the physician's office; however, postoperative issues that require presentation to outside facilities are important to distinguish from those managed in the practitioner's office, because they may incur additional, unplanned cost to both the patient and the healthcare system.

NA Laryngoscope, 128:2714-2717, 2018.