Primary complications by surgical specialty
| Entire sample (n=344) | Pediatric otolaryngology (n=126) | Pediatric surgery (n=133) | Otolaryngology (n=19) | General surgery (n=66) | P value | |
| Patient had at least one complication | 0.006* | |||||
| Yes | 10 (2.9) | 8 (6.3)a | 0b | 1 (5.3)a,b | 1 (1.5)a,b | |
| No | 334 (97.1) | 118 (93.7) | 133 (100) | 18 (94.7) | 65 (98.5) | |
| Patient had at least one SSI | 0.044* | |||||
| Yes | 3 (0.9) | 2 (1.6)a | 0a | 1 (5.3)a | 0a | |
| No | 341 (99.1) | 124 (98.4) | 133 (100) | 18 (94.7) | 66 (100) | |
| Patient experienced a superficial SSI | 0.277* | |||||
| Yes | 2 (0.6) | 2 (1.6) | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| No | 342 (99.4) | 124 (98.4) | 133 (100) | 19 (100) | 66 (100) | |
| Number of superficial SSIs, median (IQR) | 0 (0.0–0.0) | 0 (0.0–0.0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.325† |
| Days from operation until superficial SSI, median (IQR) (n=2) | 10 (10.0–10.0) | 10 (10.0–10.0) | – | – | – | N/A |
| Patient experienced deep SSI? | 0.055* | |||||
| Yes | 1 (0.3) | 0 | 0 | 1 (5.3) | 0 | |
| No | 343 (99.7) | 126 (100) | 133 (100) | 18 (94.7) | 66 (100) | |
| Number of deep SSIs, median (IQR) | 0 (0.0–0.0) | 0a,b | 0a | 0 (0.0–0.0)b | 0‡b | |
| Days from operation until deep SSI, median (IQR) (n=1) | 17 (17.0–17.0) | – | – | 17 (17.0–17.0) | – | N/A |
| Patient experienced an organ/space SSI? | N/A | |||||
| Yes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| No | 344 (100) | 126 (100) | 133 (100) | 19 (100) | 66 (100) | |
| Readmitted within 30 days | 0.024* | |||||
| Yes | 8 (2.3) | 6 (4.8)a | 0a | 1 (5.3)a | 1 (1.5)a | |
| No | 336 (97.7) | 120 (95.2) | 133 (100) | 18 (94.7) | 65 (98.5) | |
| Readmission reason | 7 (100) | 0.571* | ||||
| Superficial incisional SSI | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Deep incisional SSI | 1 (14.3) | 0 | 0 | 1 (100) | 0 | |
| Organ/space SSI | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Swelling, mass, or lump in head or neck | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Stridor | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Hematoma complicating a procedure | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Seroma complicating a procedure | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Other postoperative infection | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Wound disruption | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Attention to dressings and sutures | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Postprocedural hemorrhage of skin and subcutaneous tissue | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Pneumonia | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Hypocalcemia | 3 (42.9) | 2 (40.0) | 0 | 0 | 1 (100) | |
| Postoperative systemic sepsis | 1 (14.3) | 1 (20.0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Injury to multiple and unspecified intrathoracic organs with open wound into cavity | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Other | 2 (28.6) | 2 (40.0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Days from operation to readmission, median (IQR) | 10 (9.0–20.0) | 10 (8.0–22.5) | – | 17 (17.0–17.0) | 9 (9.0–9.0) | 0.675† |
| Death within 30 days | 0.613* | |||||
| Yes | 1 (0.3) | 1 (0.8) | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| No | 343 (99.7) | 125 (99.2) | 133 (100) | 19 (100) | 66 (100) | |
| Unplanned reoperation within 30 days | 0.055* | |||||
| Yes | 1 (0.3) | 0 | 0 | 1 (5.3) | 0 | |
| No | 343 (99.7) | 126 (100) | 133 (100) | 18 (94.7) | 66 (100) | |
| Reoperation procedure code | N/A | |||||
| 10060 - Incision and drainage of abscesses | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 10121 - Incision and removal of foreign body | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 10140 - Incision and drainage procedure on skin | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 13160 - Wound dehiscence | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 20005 - General incision procedures of soft tissue abscess | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 21501 - Incision procedure on the neck and thorax | 1 (100) | – | – | 1 (100) | – | |
| 31237 - Endoscopy procedure on the accessory sinuses | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 33202 - Pacemaker or pacing cardioverter-defibrillator procedures | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 60281 – Excision procedures on the thyroid gland | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Days from operation to reoperation, median (IQR) (n=1) | 17 (17.0–17.0) | – | – | 17 (17.0–17.0) | – | N/A |
| Days from operation until death, median (IQR) (n=1) | 16 (16.0–16.0) | 16 (16.0–16.0) | – | – | – | N/A |
Data are presented as n (%) unless otherwise noted.
Data might not add to 100% due to rounding.
Letters are used to present pairwise comparisons between surgical specialties and outcome variables. The columns with at least one letter the same indicate no statistically significant difference between surgical specialties.
a and b indicates pairwise comparisons.
*P value was computed using Fisher’s exact test.
†P value was computed using Kruskal-Wallis test.
IOR, interquartile range; N/A, not applicable; SSI, surgery site infections.