Table 1.
Patient Characteristics (n=7,457)
| Characteristic | |
|---|---|
| Age (y) | |
| Mean±SD | 50±17 |
| Range | 16 to 93 |
| Female | 63% (4,696) |
| Major surgery* | 62% (4,597) |
| Urgent surgery | 41% (3,080) |
| Surgery type | |
| General | 31% (2,292) |
| Neurosurgery | 19% (1,416) |
| Obstetrics and Gynecology | 24% (1,780) |
| Orthopedics | 15% (1,134) |
| Other | 11% (835) |
| Comorbidities | |
| Diabetes mellitus | 4% (273) |
| Chronic pulmonary disease | 10% (763) |
| Neoplasia | 15% (1,094) |
| Liver disease | 0.6% (45) |
| Hypertension | 20% (1,457) |
| Cerebrovascular disease | 2% (166) |
| Congestive heart failure | 1% (67) |
| Recent myocardial infarction | 3% (231) |
| Postoperative complications | |
| Cardiac† | 1.3% (100) |
| Pneumonia | 3.0% (220) |
| Stroke | 0.1% (9) |
| Hemorrhage‡ | 1.8% (137) |
| Infection§ | 1.3% (93) |
| Acute myocardial infarction∥ | 0.1% (9) |
| Acute respiratory failure∥ | 0.4% (27) |
| DVT/PE∥ | 0.2% (16) |
| At least one complication¶ | 6.9% (517) |
| Any two complications | 0.9% (67) |
| Any three complications | 0.1% (6) |
| Mortality | 0.2% (14) |
| Cost in dollars** | |
| Median | 2,094 |
| Range | 154 to 80,589 |
| Length of hospital stay in days | |
| Median | 3 |
| Range | 1 to 116 |
Major surgery refers to any surgical procedure that is long in duration and involving a significant amount of tissue dissection or fluid shifts.
Cardiac complication is defined in the 996 series ICD-9-CM coding manual as cardiac arrest, cardiac insufficiency, cardiorespiratory failure, or heart failure during or resulting from a surgical procedure.
Hemorrhage is defined in the 996 series ICD-9-CM coding manual as any hemorrhage of any site resulting from a surgical procedure.
Infection is defined in the 996 series ICD-9-CM coding manual as postoperative abscess or septicemia or infection due to an internal prosthetic device.
These comorbid conditions are defined using ICD-9 codes not in the 996 series.15
Any complication refers to the occurrence of at least 1 of the following postoperative complications: cardiac, pneumonia, infection, stroke, DVT/PE, acute respiratory failure, MI, or hemorrhage.
All dollar values are based on 1998 U.S. dollars.
ICD-9-CM, International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes; DVT/PE, deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism.