276 Outpatient Versus Inpatient Laminoplasty for Cervical Spondylosis: A Non-inferiority Analysis of Surgical Outcomes

INTRODUCTION: A rising trend of outpatient spinal procedures has been observed recently due to increasing evidence of lower risk of hospital-associated risks and better value-based healthcare delivery. METHODS: The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) database was queried for patients undergoing cervical laminoplasty for spinal spondylosis. Patients with a hospital stay of more than 48 hours were excluded from the comparative analysis to increase baseline comparability between the two groups. Patients undergoing other spinal procedures during the same hospital stay were also excluded. The outcomes of interest were postoperative complications, nonroutine discharge, readmissions, and reoperations within 30 days after surgery. The non-inferiority of outpatient compared with inpatient surgery was defined as a risk difference of <10.0% at a one-sided 97.5% confidence interval. RESULTS: A total of 808 cervical laminoplasty surgeries were identified. The study cohorts consisted of 107 and 701 patients in outpatient and inpatient groups, respectively. All recorded baseline characteristics, except age (58.3 ± 10.6 vs. 61.4 ± 11.5, p=0.01), were similar between the two groups. The incidences of postoperative complications were 2.8% and 3.4% for the outpatient and inpatient groups, respectively, while the non-routine discharge rates were 6.5% and 3.5%. Both groups had a 30-day readmission rate of 3.7%. In addition, the 30-day reoperation rates were 2.8 % and 1.4% for the outpatient and inpatient groups, respectively. Noninferiority of outpatient surgery was documented at a risk difference of 10% for postoperative complications, non-routine discharge, and readmission and reoperation rates. CONCLUSIONS: Outpatient cervical laminoplasty demonstrated similar early postoperative outcomes compared to inpatient surgery. Noninferiority in surgical outcomes after surgery was documented for outpatient compared with inpatient cervical laminoplasty surgery.