This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Readmission after musculoskeletal surgery more likely in older patients, those with greater comorbidity
Older patients and those with greater comorbidity who underwent operative treatment of skeletal trauma were more likely to be readmitted within 30 days of surgery, according to study results.
Researchers identified 3,452 patients who underwent surgery for musculoskeletal trauma between 2008 and 2012. Outcome measures included readmission to the hospital within 30 days of surgery and the subset of readmission because of adverse events related directly to surgery.
Study results showed 5.4% of patients experienced at least one readmission within 30 days of surgery, with 3.5% of patients experiencing a surgical adverse event and 1.9% of patients experiencing a nonsurgical adverse event. The researchers found the most frequent adverse events were infection and fixation failure.
Readmission within 30 days of surgery, as well as readmission related to an adverse event, was significantly associated with higher Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), older age and marital status, according to the researchers. No significant differences were seen between readmitted patients with or without surgical adverse events.
CCI and older age were included in both best multivariate logistic regression models for all-cause 30-day readmission and 30-day readmission related to a surgical adverse event. Both models predicted very little variability in readmission, according to the researchers, reflecting the complexity of readmission and the difficulty found in reducing readmission risk to just a few factors.
Disclosures: Bossen received a faculty grant from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam for medical students. Hageman received research grants from Marti-Keunig Eckhart Stichting, Anna Foundation and Spinoza Foundation.