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No difference in rates of perioperative adverse events found between inpatient, outpatient UKA
Researchers found no significant differences in perioperative adverse event profiles between patients who underwent unicompartmental knee arthroplasty in either an outpatient vs. inpatient setting.
“We used the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database to compare the rates of perioperative complications between outpatient and inpatient unicompartmental knee arthroplasty,” Patawut Bovonratwet, BS, told Healio.com/Orthopedics. “We found no significant difference in any perioperative complications or any post-discharge complications, including 30-day readmission, between the outpatient and inpatient groups.”
Bovonratwet and colleagues compared patient characteristics and comorbidities of 568 patients who underwent outpatient unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) to those of 5,312 patients who underwent inpatient UKA between 2005 and 2015. Researchers defined an outpatient procedure as a length of hospital stay of 0 days and an inpatient procedure as a length of hospital stay of 1 day to 4 days. Researchers performed propensity score-matched comparisons for 30-day perioperative complications and readmissions between the two cohorts.
Results showed no significant differences in any perioperative complications or any post-discharge complications between the outpatient and inpatient groups after propensity matching to controls for potential confounding factors. Researchers noted no statistical difference in the rate of 30-day readmissions between the two groups.
“Our results suggest that outpatient unicompartmental knee arthroplasty can be appropriately considered in carefully selected patients,” Bovonratwet said. – by Casey Tingle
Disclosures: Bovonratwet reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.