Thirty-Day Readmission Risk Factors Following Single-Level Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (TLIF) for 4992 Patients From the ACS-NSQIP Database

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. OBJECTIVE To describe the readmission rate and identify risk factors associated with 30-day readmission after transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) surgery. METHODS Patients who underwent elective single level TLIF surgery from 2011 to 2013 were identified in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) database. Emergency or trauma cases were excluded. Preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative variables were extracted. A multivariate binary regression identified predictors correlated with 30-day readmission. RESULTS A total of 4992 patients were included in the analysis. The overall 30-day readmission rate was 5.51% (275/4992) for readmissions reported between 2011 to 2013. The mean age of patients readmitted was 62.40 years (standard error [SE] = 0.78) and 60.92 years (SE = 0.20) among those whom were not readmitted (P = .05). The top three causes for readmission included postoperative pain control, deep or superficial surgical site infections. Predictors associated with 30-day readmission in a multivariate analysis included female gender (odds ratio [OR] = 1.27, 95% CI = 0.97-1.65), history of severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (OR = 1.81, 95% CI = 1.11-2.96), and in the postoperative period, American Society of Anesthesiologists class (OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.04-1.63), presence of superficial surgical site infection (OR= 18.23, 95% CI = 10.36-32.08), or urinary tract infection (OR = 4.93, 95% CI = 2.84-8.58). CONCLUSIONS The readmission rate, risk factors, and causes following TLIF surgery are comparable to other lumbar spinal procedures reported from the ACS-NSQIP database.