A National Registry Analysis of the Association of Perioperative Regional Anesthesia with hospital length of stay following open reduction and internal fixation of the ankle.

STUDY

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate if using regional anesthesia for post-operative pain control for patients who underwent ankle ORIF is associated with a decrease in length of stay.

DESIGN

Multicenter retrospective cohort study.

SETTING

Inpatient perioperative.

PATIENTS: 12,468 inpatients (2007 to 2016) who received ankle ORIF with and without regional anesthesia for pain control.

INTERVENTIONS: Regional Anesthesia for postoperative pain control.

MEASUREMENTS: Hospital length of stay along with multiple covariates.

MAIN

RESULTS

The median [quartiles] hospital length of stay of the non-regional anesthesia and regional anesthesia cohorts were 1 day [0, 2 days] and 0 days [0, 1 day], respectively (p < 0.0001). On multivariable Cox regression analysis, the use of regional anesthesia was associated with decreased time to hospital discharge (HR 1.09, 95% CI 1.03-1.14, p = 0.002). Using 1:2 propensity score matching, the median [quartiles] hospital length of stay between the non-regional anesthesia and regional anesthesia matched cohorts were 0 days [0, 1 day] (range = 0-56 days) and 0 day [0, 1 day] (range = 0-33 days), respectively (p = 0.013).

CONCLUSION

The use of regional anesthesia for post-operative pain control was associated with a decreased length of stay for patients undergoing ankle ORIF.