Tumor-Related and Patient-Related Variables Affecting Length of Hospital Stay Following Vestibular Schwannoma Microsurgery.

OBJECTIVE: Review a single institution's vestibular schwannoma (VS) microsurgery experience to determine (1) correlations between demographics, comorbidities, and/or surgical approach on hospital length of stay (LOS) and discharge disposition and (2) trends in surgical approach over time. METHODS: Retrospective case series from a multidisciplinary skull base program at a tertiary care, academic hospital. All adult (>18 years) patients undergoing primary microsurgery for VS between 2008 and 2018 were included. RESULTS: A total of 147 subjects were identified. Surgical approach was split between middle fossa (MF) (16%), retrosigmoid (RS) (35%), and translabyrinthine (TL) (49%) craniotomies. For the 8% of patients had other than routine (OTR) discharge. Mean LOS was significantly longer for patients undergoing RS than either MF or TL. Brainstem compression by the tumor was associated with longer LOS as were diagnoses of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and peripheral vascular disease (PVD). For all discharges, the 40 to 50- and 50 to 60-year-old subgroups had significantly shorter LOS than the 70-years-and-older patients. For the 92% of patients routinely discharged, there was a significantly shorter LOS in the 40 to 50-year-olds compared to the 70-years-and-older patients. There was a significant shift in surgical approach from RS to TL over the study period. CONCLUSION: Over 90% of VS microsurgery patients were routinely discharged with a median hospital LOS of 3.2 days, both of which are consistent with published data. There is an inverse relationship between age and LOS with patients older than 70 years having significantly longer LOS. Brainstem compression, COPD, PVD, and the RS approach negatively affect LOS. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

Pre-operative smoking history increases risk of infection in deep brain stimulation surgery.

Although general risk of deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy has been previously described, application of risk prediction at the individual patient level is still largely at the discretion of a treating physician or a multidisciplinary team. To explore associations between potentially modifiable patient characteristics and common adverse events following DBS surgery, we retrospectively reviewed consecutive adult patients who had undergone new DBS electrode placement surgeries at two high-volume tertiary referral centers between October 1997 and May 2018. Among 501 patients included in the analysis (mean age (SD), 64.6 (10.4) years), 165 (32.9%) were female, 67 (13.4%) had diabetes, 231 (46.1%) had hypertension, 25 (5.0%) were smokers, 27 (5.4%) developed an infection, 15 (3.0%) had intracranial or intraventricular hemorrhage, and 53 (10.6%) had an unplanned return to the operating room. Patients who developed a surgical site infection were more likely to report history of smoking before DBS surgery (16% vs 5%, p = 0.04). There was a trend for patients with hypertension to be at risk for intracranial hemorrhage (p = 0.11). In conclusion, this multicenter study demonstrated an association between preoperative smoking and increased risk of infection following new DBS implantation surgery. Counseling about this risk should be considered in preoperative evaluation of patients who are considering undergoing a DBS procedure.

Early Effects of Medicare's Bundled Payment for Care Improvement Program for Lumbar Fusion.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of Medicare claims linked to hospital participation in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation's episode-based Bundled Payment for Care Improvement (BPCI) program for lumbar fusion. OBJECTIVE: To describe the early effects of BPCI participation for lumbar fusion on 90-day reimbursement, procedure volume, reoperation, and readmission. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Initiated on January 1, 2013, BPCI's voluntary bundle payment program provides a predetermined payment for services related to a Diagnosis-Related Group-defined "triggering event" over a defined time period. As an alternative to fee-for-service, these reforms shift the financial risk of care on to hospitals. METHODS: We identified fee-for-service beneficiaries over age 65 undergoing a lumbar fusion in 2012 or 2013, corresponding to the years before and after BPCI initiation. Hospitals were grouped based on program participation status as nonparticipants, preparatory, or risk-bearing. Generalized estimating equation models adjusting for patient age, sex, race, comorbidity, and hospital size were used to compare changes in episode costs, procedure volume, and safety indicators based on hospital BPCI participation. RESULTS: We included 89,605 beneficiaries undergoing lumbar fusion, including 36% seen by a preparatory hospital and 7% from a risk-bearing hospital. The mean age of the cohort was 73.4 years, with 59% women, 92% White, and 22% with a Charlson Comorbidity Index of 2 or more. Participant hospitals had greater procedure volume, bed size, and total discharges. Relative to nonparticipants, risk-bearing hospitals had a slightly increased fusion procedure volume from 2012 to 2013 (3.4% increase vs. 1.6% decrease, P = 0.119), did not reduce 90-day episode of care costs (0.4% decrease vs. 2.9% decrease, P = 0.044), increased 90-day readmission rate (+2.7% vs. -10.7%, P = 0.043), and increased repeat surgery rates (+30.6% vs. +7.1% points, P = 0.043). CONCLUSION: These early, unintended trends suggest an imperative for continued monitoring of BPCI in lumbar fusion. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3.

Use of bone morphogenetic protein among patients undergoing fusion for degenerative diagnoses in the United States, 2002 to 2012.

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Use of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) as an adjunct to spinal fusion surgery proliferated after Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 2002. Major safety concerns emerged in 2008. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine whether published concerns about the safety of BMP altered clinical practice. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: The study design involved the analysis of the National Inpatient Sample from 2002 through 2012. PATIENT SAMPLE: Adults (older than 20 years) undergoing an elective fusion operation for common degenerative diagnoses were identified using codes from the International Classification of Diseases, ninth revision, Clinical Modification. OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome measures were proportion of cervical and lumbar fusion operations, over time, that involved BMP. METHODS: We aggregated the data into a monthly time series and reported the proportion of cervical and lumbar fusion operations, over time, that involved BMP. Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average, a regression model for time series data, was used to test whether there was a statistically significant change in the overall rate of BMP use after an FDA Public Health Notification in 2008. RESULTS: Use of BMP in spinal fusion procedures increased rapidly until 2008, involving up to 45.2% of lumbar and 13.5% of cervical fusions. Bone morphogenetic protein use significantly decreased after the 2008 FDA Public Health Notification and revelations of financial payments to surgeons involved in the pivotal FDA-approved trials. For lumbar fusion, the average annual increase was 7.9 percentage points per year from 2002 to 2008, followed by an average annual decrease of 11.7 percentage points thereafter (p≤.001). Use of BMP in cervical fusion increased 2.0% per year until the FDA Public Health Notification, followed by a 2.8% per year decrease (p=.035). CONCLUSIONS: Use of BMP in spinal fusion surgery declined subsequent to published safety concerns and revelations of financial conflicts of interest for investigators involved in the pivotal clinical trials.

Application of Lean Methodology for Improved Quality and Efficiency in Operating Room Instrument Availability.

Advances in surgical instrumentation allow surgeons to treat patients with less morbidity and shorter recovery time. However, the increasing complexity also adds to surgical risk, and to operating room supply chain burden. To improve the quality and efficiency of operating room instrument availability, we developed and validated a Lean 5S approach consisting of sort (determining instrument usage and waste), simplify (removing unnecessary instruments), sweep (confirm availability of needed instruments), standardize (all trays the same for a given procedure), and self-discipline (monitor success). The primary outcome was reduction in unnecessary instruments delivered to the operating room. As a secondary analysis, we evaluated the effect of the Lean instrument intervention on surgery times. We reduced the number of instruments for minimally invasive spine surgery by 70% (from 197 to 58), and setup time decreased 37% (13.1-8.2 min, p = .0015). We also report subsequent validation of the approach on deep brain stimulator cases. We conclude that complex surgical procedures offer opportunities for substantial waste reduction, simplification, and quality improvement, with potential institutional annual cost savings of $2.8 million. We demonstrate that Lean methodology can improve quality at lower cost.

Resuscitation from hemorrhagic shock with HBOC-201 in the setting of traumatic brain injury.

Outcomes after mild or moderate head trauma are worsened with associated hypotension, and secondary brain injury can be reduced with timely resuscitation. This study was performed to investigate HBOC-201 as a resuscitation therapy in a combined hemorrhagic shock and brain injury model. Anesthetized rats sustained moderate brain injury using a controlled cortical impact device, followed by rapid hemorrhage to a mean arterial pressure of 30 mmHg. After 30 min of hypotension, animals were resuscitated with HBOC-201, autologous shed blood (SB), or lactated Ringer solution (LR). Brain injury was assessed by measurements of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebral vasoreactivity to hypercapnia (CVH) using a laser Doppler flowmeter. Contusion volume was evaluated histologically, and cerebral edema was determined by total water content. The HBOC rats required significantly less resuscitation volume versus LR and SB. The CBF was significantly diminished at 60 min after resuscitation with HBOC (70.1% +/- 3.8% baseline) compared with LR (105.8% +/- 10.1% baseline; P < 0.01) and SB (96.8% +/- 5% baseline; P < 0.05). The CVH was preserved in the HBOC and SB groups. The CVH was significantly diminished compared with baseline in the LR group at 30 min after resuscitation and showed a significant loss compared with HBOC at 60 min after resuscitation. The contusion volume for HBOC (45.1 mm3) and SB (35.1 mm3) was less than LR (63.5 mm3, P < 0.01). Although CBF was diminished after resuscitation in the HBOC group, HBOC-treated animals maintained CVH and experienced significantly smaller contusion volume than those treated with LR. These results suggest that resuscitation with HBOC-201 protects autoregulatory mechanisms and may reduce secondary brain injury in traumatic brain injury.