Effect of Instrumented Spine Surgery on Length of Stay.

INTRODUCTION: Total joint arthroplasty studies have identified that surgeries that take place later in the week have a longer length of stay compared with those earlier in the week. This has not been demonstrated in studies focused on anterior cervical diskectomy and fusions or minimally invasive lumbar laminectomies. All-inclusive instrumented spine surgeries, however, have not been analyzed. The purpose of this study was to determine whether day of surgery affects length of stay and whether there are predictive patient characteristics that affect length of stay in instrumented spine surgery. METHODS: All instrumented spine surgeries in 2019 at a single academic tertiary center were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were categorized for surgical day and discharge disposition to home or a rehabilitation facility. Differences by patient characteristics in length of stay and discharge disposition were compared using Kruskal-Wallis and chi square tests along with multiple comparisons. RESULTS: Seven hundred six patients were included in the analysis. Excluding Saturday, there were no differences in length of stay based on the day of surgery. Age older than 75 years, female, American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) classification of 3 or 4, and an increased Charlson Comorbidity Index were all associated with a notable increase in length of stay. While most of the patients were discharged home, discharge to a rehabilitation facility stayed, on average, 4.7 days longer (6.8 days compared with 2.1 days, on average) and were associated with an age older than 66 years old, an ASA classification of 3 or 4, and a Charlson Comorbidity Index of 1 to 3. CONCLUSIONS: Day of surgery does not affect length of stay in instrumented spine surgeries. Discharge to a rehabilitation facility, however, did increase the length of stay as did age older than 75 years, higher ASA classification, and increased Charlson Comorbidity Index classification.

Impact of mandibular advancement devices on C-reactive protein levels in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To determine the effect of treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with custom-made mandibular advancement devices (MADs) on C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in patients with obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). STUDY DESIGN: Case series with chart review. METHODS: Charts of consecutive patients fitted with custom-made mandibular advancement devices for treatment of OSAHS between December 2011 and November 2012 were reviewed. Demographics such as age, sex, and body mass index (BMI) were collected. Prefitting and postfitting polysomnograms were reviewed. Pre- and posttreatment apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and average O2 saturation were compared. Only patients with documented CRP levels determined prior to mandibular advancement device fitting and again after improvement of OSAHS symptoms were included. RESULTS: Forty-nine patients (77.6% male, age 47.4 ± 11.7 years, BMI 29.6 ± 5.0 kg/m(2)) were included in this study. Patients initially had elevated CRP levels (2.5 ± 1.8 mg/dl), which decreased significantly following use of their custom-made mandibular advancement device (1.9 ± 1.3 mg/dl, P = 0.006) by approximately 24%. AHI decreased significantly from 33.3 ± 21.7 pretreatment to 12.1 ± 22.3 posttreatment (P < 0.001). Treatment with MADs reduced AHI by approximately 69.3%. Minimum oxygen saturation significantly improved from 85.1% ± 5.9 pretreatment to 90.7% ± 3.6 posttreatment (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Treatment with custom-made mandibular advancement devices significantly reduced elevated CRP levels in patients with mild to severe OSAHS. Therapy achieves reasonable response and cure rates in the observed patients with a significant reduction in AHI.

Diagnostic value of the Friedman tongue position and Mallampati classification for obstructive sleep apnea: a meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between the Mallampati classification and Friedman tongue position for obstructive sleep apnea severity as determined by apnea-hypopnea index and to determine which method is most closely correlated with prediction of obstructive sleep apnea severity. DATA SOURCES: English-language searches of PubMed, MedLine, and the Cochrane database. Reference sections of identified studies were examined for additional articles. REVIEW METHODS: Databases through December 2011 were searched, combined with review of relevant article bibliographies, and assessed by 4 reviewers. Systematic review and random-effects meta-analysis of studies evaluating tongue position and obstructive sleep apnea severity were performed. Outcomes were reported as correlations. RESULTS: Ten studies met inclusion criteria and had data for pooling (2513 patients). Friedman tongue position and Mallampati classification were significantly associated with obstructive sleep apnea severity, with a correlation of 0.351 (0.094-0.564, P = .008). Analysis of the correlation of tongue position with obstructive sleep apnea severity reveals correlations of 0.184 (0.052, 0.310, P = .006) and 0.388 (0.049, 0.646, P = .026) for the Mallampati classification and Friedman tongue position, respectively. Publication bias does not yield a significant Egger regression intercept; however, 4 imputed values to the right of the mean were found using Duval and Tweedie's trim-and-fill method, yielding an overall correlation of 0.498 (confidence interval = 0.474-0.521). CONCLUSION: The Mallampati classification and Friedman tongue position assessment techniques are significantly correlated with predicting obstructive sleep apnea severity. Publication bias does not significantly affect our results. The strength of this correlation is higher for Friedman tongue position, although 95% confidence intervals for the respective correlation coefficients overlap.