Researchers complied orthopedic surgery data from five academic institutions between Jan. 1, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2015. The study authors defined overlapping surgery as two skin incisions open simultaneously for a single surgeon.
Patients who underwent overlapping and non-overlapping surgery were compared on the occurrence of a perioperative complication within 30 days postoperatively. Secondary outcomes were all-cause 30-day readmission, length of stay and mortality.
Researchers also tested for non-inferiority of overlapping surgery. The study comprised 14,135 cases.
Of the total cases, 40 percent were overlapping surgeries. Preoperative complications occurred in 1 percent of overlapping surgeries and 2 percent of non-overlapping surgeries. The overlapping surgery group was also non-inferior to the non-overlapping surgery group.
Patients who underwent overlapping surgeries had a lower risk of all-cause 30-day readmissions as well as shorter lengths of stays.
“Our results suggest that overlapping inpatient [orthopedic] surgery does not introduce additional perioperative risk for the complications that we evaluated,” the study authors concluded. “The suitability of this practice should be determined by individual surgeons on a case-by-case basis with appropriate informed consent.”
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