Influence of the living Pareto chart and data transparency on patient outcomes in neurosurgery.

OBJECTIVE: Quality improvement (QI) tools are increasingly being used to calibrate healthcare quality. Achieving healthcare quality is essential, as there is a movement toward value-based healthcare delivery. Visual management, such as a living Pareto chart, is a strategy for improvement within the QI framework. The authors herein hypothesized that transparency of data through a living Pareto chart is a powerful way to improve patient outcomes and gain clinical efficiency. METHODS: The authors retrospectively reviewed patient outcomes and complications; cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks; shunt, baclofen, and other surgical site infections; readmission rates; and same- or next-day appointments in a cohort of patients at the Riley Hospital for Children from November 1, 2016, to May 31, 2020. Similarly, they reviewed neurosurgical outcomes and complications at a second institution, the Oklahoma Children's Hospital, where a living Pareto chart was utilized from February 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022. The discrete frequency and rates per month of outcomes and complications were graphed on scatterplots, Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to measure the strength of the relationship between event frequency and time, and best-fit lines illustrated the relationship between those points through the least-squares method. RESULTS: At both the Riley Hospital for Children and Oklahoma Children's Hospital, the use of a living Pareto chart to display data transparently was associated with decreasing infections, and it was associated with decreasing readmissions at Riley. On the other hand, it encouraged same- or next-day clinic appointments to be offered to patients and families. Interestingly, CSF leaks were not mitigated with data transparency alone. CONCLUSIONS: Transparency is a driver of change in patient, provider, and institutional behaviors. It is an essential element of QI and patient safety, as well as building a culture of trust. Readmissions, infections, and same- or next-day appointments were influenced by the living Pareto chart; however, CSF leaks remained recalcitrant to data transparency. Other QI strategies may be necessary to positively affect the occurrence of CSF leaks in neurosurgery.

Torcular pseudomass in a 14-month-old child: illustrative case.

BACKGROUND: "Torcular pseudomass," or redundant soft tissue in the torcular region, is not an infrequent incidental finding on advanced imaging of the brain in infants and young children. It was recently codified among pediatric neuroradiologists; however, its report in the pediatric neurosurgical community has not previously been elucidated. OBSERVATIONS: The authors present a case of a 14-month-old child who presented with fever and a first-time seizure. Computed tomography of the head suggested an epidural abscess; however, magnetic resonance imaging characteristics of the lesion were consistent with torcular pseudomass, a normal variant. At the 3-month follow-up, the child was continuing to do well and had not had another seizure. There have been no indications for surgical intervention or additional radiographic surveillance. LESSONS: The differential diagnosis for torcular pseudomass includes dural venous sinus thrombosis, dermoid cysts, occipital encephalocele, eosinophilic granuloma, and primary and metastatic tumors, such as neuroblastoma. The management of each of these disorders in the differential diagnosis may be much more invasive than continued observation in the case of torcular pseudomass. Therefore, it is important for pediatric neurosurgeons to become familiar with this developmental anomaly of the dura and occipital skull.