NSQIP data collection up to 30 postoperative days is sufficient to capture some complications in orthopedic surgeries

The primary aim of this study is to determine if the 30-day follow-up period used by the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSIQP) is an appropriate timeframe to capture complications after orthopedic surgeries.

The 2019 NSQIP data were used. The independent variables were complication type. The dependent variable was days to complication. A Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine if the data were normally distributed.

271,397 orthopedic cases were included. Myocardial infarction, pneumonia, ventilator over 48 h, progressive renal insufficiency, acute renal failure, stroke, and cardiac arrest had positive skewness and positive kurtosis. Deep incisional surgical site infection (SSI), organ/space SSI, wound disruption, unplanned reoperation one, unplanned reoperation two, readmission two, and readmission three had negative kurtosis and negative skewness. Complications with positive kurtosis and positive skewness are more likely to be confined to the 30-day postoperative period, whereas complications with negative skewness and negative kurtosis may be underreported within the 30-day follow-up.

These findings are useful in their ability to inform future orthopedic research using NSQIP which continues to generate new data for surgeons to consider for their postoperative care and complication management.