Safety and postoperative adverse events in pediatric airway reconstruction: Analysis of ACS-NSQIP-P 30-day outcomes

Objectives: Prior research has shown that airway reconstructive procedures comprise significant composite morbidity compared to the whole of pediatric otolaryngologic cases evaluated in the American College of Surgeon's National Surgery Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric (ACS-NSQIP-P) platform. We describe postoperative sequelae of pediatric airway reconstructive procedures and identify predictive factors for adverse events. Methods: Current procedural terminology (CPT) codes were used to identify children undergoing included procedures in the 2012 to 2014 ACS-NSQIP-P public use files (PUF). Targeted variables included patient demographics and 30-day postoperative events (reoperation, readmission, and complications). Event rates were determined and compared within subgroups. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify predictive factors for major adverse events. Results: In 3 years of PUF data (183,283 total cases), 198 cases (0.11%) were airway reconstructive procedures. The most common was laryngoplasty (CPT 31580, 31582; n = 111, 56.1%), followed by cervical tracheoplasty (CPT 31750; n = 47, 23.7%), tracheal resection (CPT 31780; n = 24, 12.1%), and cricoid split (CPT 31587, n = 16, 8.1%). There were 131 premature children (66.2%) and 94 children (47.5%) with history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Thirty-day postoperative sequelae included readmissions (n = 42, 21.2%), complications (n = 27, 13.6%), and reoperations (n = 14, 7.1%). On univariate analysis, children less than 3 years of age were more likely to undergo an unplanned reoperation. There were no significant predictive factors for readmission or complication. On multivariate analysis, there was a trend toward higher rates of unplanned reoperations in children less than 3 years of age. Conclusion: The 30-day adverse event rate in pediatric airway surgery is high, with no identifiable predictors noted in the analysis of these data. Findings imply that systematic collection of variables and outcomes specific to pediatric airway surgery, in addition to standard NSQIP workflow, will be essential for NSQIP-P to truly effect quality improvement in these high-risk procedures.