Is Longer Surgery More Dangerous? Operative Duration Not Associated With Complications After Vestibular Schwannoma Resection.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association between operative duration and complications after vestibular schwannoma (VS) surgery.

STUDY

DESIGN

Retrospective chart review.

SETTING

Tertiary referral center.

PATIENTS: One hundred forty-eight patients undergoing vestibular schwannoma resection in a single institution.

INTERVENTION: Vestibular schwannoma resection.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Operative duration, surgical approach, tumor size, and postoperative complications.

RESULTS

Forty-one patients underwent middle cranial fossa (MCF) approach, 46 underwent translabyrinthine (TL) approach, and 61 underwent retrosigmoid (RS) approach. The mean operative duration overall was 407 minutes (MCF-339 min, TL-450 min, RS 420 min). When controlling for tumor size, there was no difference in procedure duration by approach (OR 0.92, CI 0.82-1.02, p=0.11).When controlling for approach, there was a significant increase in procedure duration by tumor size (OR 1.36, CI 1.23-1.50, p < 0.0001). Increased procedure duration was not associated with 30-day readmission (p = 0.82), cerebrospinal fluid leak (CSF) (p = 0.84), return to the operating room (p = 0.75), postoperative deep vein thrombosis (p = 1.0), postoperative stroke (p = 0.23), or postoperative wound complications (p = 0.70). Longer operative time was associated with increased hospital length of stay (p = 0.04). However, when controlling for tumor size and surgical approach, hospital length of stay was no longer associated with increased procedure duration (OR 1.15, CI 0.98-1.33, p = 0.3).

CONCLUSION

Increased operative duration was associated with larger tumor size; however contrary to previous reports, increased operative duration was not associated with postoperative complications.