Is the Complexity of Arthroscopic Temporomandibular Joint Surgery Associated With Short-Term Complication Rates?

Area of Science:

• Orthopedic Surgery
• Minimally Invasive Procedures

Background:

• Arthroscopy is a common minimally invasive surgery with reported complication rates between 1.7% and 4.4%.
• The relationship between arthroscopic procedure complexity and complication frequency remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the association between arthroscopic procedure complexity and short-term postoperative complications.
• To analyze complication rates across different levels of arthroscopic complexity.

Main Methods:

• Prospective cohort study involving 165 subjects undergoing arthroscopy at a tertiary care hospital.
• Arthroscopy complexity was categorized into Level I (diagnostic), Level II (instrumentation/shaver), and Level III (discopexy/discectomy).
• Complications were recorded as present or absent, with data analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-squared or Fisher's exact tests (P < .05 significance).

Main Results:

• A total of 285 joints were analyzed, with Level III procedures (68.4%) being the most common.
• Overall postoperative complications occurred in 2.5% of procedures (7/285 joints), exclusively in Level III cases.
• No statistically significant association was found between arthroscopic complexity level and complication occurrence (P = .33).

Conclusions:

• The overall complication rate for arthroscopy in this study was 2.5%.
• Arthroscopic procedure complexity was not significantly associated with short-term postoperative complications.
• While a trend of more complications in complex procedures was observed, it did not reach statistical significance.