Evaluating the risk of return to the operating room across all elective orthopaedic procedures

Although elective procedures have life-changing potential, all surgeries come with an inherent risk of reoperation. There is a gap in knowledge investigating the risk of reoperation across orthopaedics. We aimed to identify the elective orthopaedic procedures with the highest rate of unplanned reoperation and the reasons for these procedures having such high reoperation rates.

Patients in the NSQIP database were identified using CPT and ICD-10 codes. We isolated 612,815 orthopaedics procedures from 2018 to 2020 and identified the 10 CPT codes with the greatest rate of unplanned return to the operating room. For each index procedure, we identified the ICD-10 codes for the reoperation procedure and categorized them into infection, mechanical failure, fracture, wound disruption, hematoma or seroma, nerve pathology, other, and unspecified.

Below knee amputation (BKA) (CPT 27880) had the highest reoperation rate of 6.92% (37 of 535 patients). Posterior-approach thoracic (5.86%) or cervical (4.14%) arthrodesis and cervical laminectomy (3.85%), revision total hip arthroplasty (5.23%), conversion to total hip arthroplasty (4.33%), and revision shoulder arthroplasty (4.22%) were among the remaining highest reoperation rates. The overall leading causes of reoperation were infection (30.1%), mechanical failure (21.1%), and hematoma or seroma (9.4%) for the 10 procedures with the highest reoperation rates.

This study successfully identified the elective orthopaedic procedures with the highest 30-day return to OR rates. These include BKA, posterior thoracic and cervical spinal arthrodesis, revision hip arthroplasty, revision total shoulder arthroplasty, and cervical laminectomy. With this data, we can identify areas across orthopaedics in which revising protocols may improve patient outcomes and limit the burden of reoperations on patients and the healthcare system. Future studies should focus on the long-term physical and financial impact that these reoperations may have on patients and hospital systems.

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