Postoperative outcomes of autologous rib graft for microtia repair in children: A NSQIP study.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the effect of surgical specialty and patient factors on 30-day postoperative outcomes and complications for children undergoing autologous costochondral grafting for microtia reconstruction.

METHODS

The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Pediatric (NSQIP-P) database was searched from 2012 through 2017 for patients who underwent autologous rib grafting (CPT 21230). The group was further filtered for coexisting ICD 9 or 10 code for microtia (744.23, Q17.2) as an indication for surgery. Outcomes analyzed included patient demographics, medical comorbidities, admission type (inpatient vs. outpatient), operative time, surgeon specialty, length of hospital stay (LOS), complications, and readmission.

RESULTS

A total of 375 pediatric patients were identified of which 157 were female and 218 were male. Mean age at time of surgery was 9.6 years. Postoperative complications and readmission occurred in 5.6% and 3.5% of patients, respectively. Surgical site infection was the most common complication. Average operative time was 246.9 min. When comparing Otolaryngology to Plastic Surgery with multivariate analysis, there was no difference in admission type (OR 1.00, p = 0.993), complication rate (OR 0.91, p = 0.744), readmission (OR 0.68, p = 0.576), operative time (p = 0.471) or total LOS (p = 0.266).

CONCLUSION

The present study demonstrated postoperative complications and readmission rates following microtia repair as reported by the NSQIP-P database. Overall complication and readmission rates were low. No significant risk factors were identified on multivariate analysis. There were no differences between surgical specialty for complication rate, operative time, hospital stay or readmission when accounting for demographic data and comorbidities.