Does Day of Surgery Affect Length of Hospital Stay after Spine Surgery

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2021

Publication Title

Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine

Abstract

Background/Introduction Day of surgery has recently been identified as a factor affecting hospital length of stay in patients undergoing some orthopedic procedures. Whether day of surgery affects length of stay in patients undergoing instrumented spine surgery is not characterized. We conducted a retrospective evaluation to study whether the day of the week the surgery is performed on may be predictive of increased length of stay in patients undergoing elective instrumented spine surgery.

Materials/Methods A clinical practice database was interrogated for patients undergoing instrumented spine surgery at our single tertiary care hospital. Patients were excluded if they underwent surgery emergently or for a diagnosis of trauma, infection, or neoplasm. Patients were catalogued in seven groups based on the day of the week the surgery was performed, and the groups were compared with respect to hospital length of stay.

Results A total of 706 patients underwent spine surgery with instrumentation during the selected time frame who met our inclusion and exclusion criteria. No patients underwent elective spine surgery with instrumentation on Sunday. Average age and gender were similar across the days of the week. BMI was slightly higher in patients undergoing surgery on Wednesday compared with other days of the week. Patients who underwent surgery on Saturday had an increased length of stay compared with those undergoing surgery on other days of the week (Monday LOS = 2.7 n =123, Tuesday LOS = 2.4 n=218, Wednesday LOS = 2.9 n=97, Thursday LOS = 2.5 n=180, Friday LOS = 3.1 n=72, Saturday LOS = 5.8 n=16, p = 0.004). When excluding patients who underwent surgery on Saturday, there was no statistically significant difference in length of stay (p=0.17).

Discussion/Conclusion Average length of stay in patients undergoing elective spine surgery with instrumentation on Saturday is longer than length of stay in patients undergoing surgery on any other day. There is no statistically significant difference in length of stay among patients undergoing surgery on Monday through Friday.

Volume

34

Issue

4

Comments

14th Lumbar Spine Research Society Annual Scientific Meeting Oral and Poster Presentations, Presented Virtually, April 8–10, 2021.

DOI

10.3171/2021.3.LSRS2021abstracts

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