A new study published in Spine examines the "July Effect" for anterior cervical fusion.
Researchers examined the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database from 2009 to 2011, including 52,499 patients who underwent anterior cervical fusions in teaching hospitals and 25,668 in non-teaching institutions. Around 6.8 percent and 7.4 percent of the cases in teaching and non-teaching hospitals respectively were July admissions. The researchers found:
• July admissions had longer hospitalizations among the teaching hospital cohort than the non-teaching hospitals.
• No significant differences in mortality or total hospital costs between teaching and non-teaching institutions.
• In-hospital complications associated with July patients at teaching institutions include deep vein thrombosis and surgical site infection, which did not reach significance in non-teaching hospitals.
• Postoperative dysphasia and DVT were significantly more prevalent among July admissions in teaching hospitals when compared with non-teaching institutions.
"This national study demonstrated that early resident academic year was associated with greater length of stay among July patients in teaching hospitals," concluded the authors. "This study did not demonstrate increased mortality or total hospital costs among July patients in either hospital cohort."
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