This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Postop complication rates vary at outpatient plastic surgery facilities in California

In a retrospective review of complication rates at outpatient plastic surgery centers in California, researchers discovered significant variability in the rate of 30-day venous thromboembolism incidents, admissions, and emergency department visits.

"The presence of significant variability in surgical outcomes after controlling for patient characteristics and complexity of procedures points to a quality problem among facilities or surgeons with higher complication rates," the researchers wrote.

The retrospective review encompassed data collection from 2005 to 2010 by the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. A total of 169,847 patients from 635 facilities were included. Patients were eligible if they underwent an abdominoplasty, liposuction, breast procedure, face procedure, or thigh lift/brachioplasty.

Abdominoplasty was associated with the highest facility rates of adverse outcomes. Some facilities had a 30-day venous thromboembolism rate of 5.7%, a 30-day readmission rate of 8.8% and a 30-day emergency department visit rate of 24.2%.

Average facility complication rates after abdominoplasty were also high, according to researchers, with a 0.7% 30-day venous thromboembolism rate, a 2.4% 30-day admission rate and a 3.9% 30-day emergency department visit rate.

Four facilities were significant outliers with venous thromboembolism rates greater than 0.8%, the researchers stated. They also identified 244 facilities that had a 30-day venous thromboembolism rate of 0%.

The 30-day readmission rates ranged from 0 to 7.7% with a mean of 1.2%, researchers reported. Eighteen facilities were found to be statistically significant outliers in the mean 30-day readmission rate, while 79 facilities had no readmissions.

As for emergency department rates, the mean was 3.4% per facility with 13 facility outliers.

Researchers concluded that attention should be focused on the differences in licensure and accreditation of outpatient plastic surgery centers in ensuring quality. -by Abigail Sutton

Disclosures: The authors reported no financial disclosures.