Optimizing Abdominoplasty Surgical Site Morbidity Profiling Through an Effective and Nationally Validated Risk...

Area of Science:

• Plastic Surgery
• Surgical Outcomes
• Predictive Modeling

Background:

• Abdominoplasty is associated with high complication rates in cosmetic surgery.
• Wound complications, including disruption and infection, are significant concerns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a clinical risk score for predicting surgical site complications after abdominoplasty.
• To aid surgeons in patient selection and risk stratification.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of a national multi-institutional database (2007-2019) of abdominoplasty procedures.
• Development of a risk score using multivariable logistic regression on a testing sample (n=11,294).
• Validation of the scoring system using receiver operating characteristic analysis on a separate validation sample (n=7528).

Main Results:

• A total of 18,822 procedures were analyzed, with a 6.8% complication rate.
• Identified risk factors: inpatient status, smoking, American Society of Anesthesiologists class ≥3, and BMI extremes.
• African American race was found to be a protective factor.

Conclusions:

• A validated scoring system for 30-day surgical site morbidity after abdominoplasty has been developed.
• This tool can help optimize patient selection, potentially decreasing morbidity and healthcare costs.