Association Between Documented Intraoperative and Postoperative Adverse Events: An Analysis of Over 100,000 Surgical Trauma Cases

Abstract

Abstract Background Intraoperative adverse events (iAEs) are common during surgical procedures. However, structured and comparable documentation often depends on the physician’s subjective assessment of each iAE. Aims The aim of this study was to validate the hypothesis that iAEs during surgical interventions are clearly associated with further postoperative complications and prolonged hospital stays. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis comparing surgical patients with and without any iAEs regarding postoperative outcomes during the hospitalization. We analyzed more than 100,000 patients with surgically treated injuries between January 2012 and December 2022 from over 70 institutions across Switzerland. Outcome parameters were further compared using a 1:1 case-control matching method, while controlling for same age, gender, main diagnosis and procedure. Results Regarding outcomes, patients with iAEs had a significantly longer duration of surgery (131 vs. 77 minutes), a prolonged length of hospital stay (10 vs. 8 days), a significantly higher need for an intensive care unit (ICU) stay of more than one day (7% vs. 3%), and a significantly higher rate of postoperative and procedure-associated complications (28% vs. 7%) than those without iAEs. The prolonged duration of surgery, length of stay, and postoperative and procedure-associated complications in the iAE group were also confirmed in the matched-pair analysis to be associated with poorer patient outcomes while controlling for significant characteristics. Conclusion In line with the current literature, our data show a clear relevance of iAEs as crucial factors for patient outcomes, manifesting in significantly longer durations of surgery, prolonged lengths of stay, and more postoperative complications, in a broad spectrum of surgical trauma procedures. We propose the mandatory documentation of iAEs through a standardized classification system, such as ClassIntra, and in accordance with the Intraoperative Complications Assessment and Reporting with Universal Standards (ICARUS) guidelines for clinical practice and surgical research.