Predictors of Hospital-Acquired Conditions Are Predominately Similar for Spine Surgery and Other Common Elective Surgical Procedures, With Some Key Exceptions:

Study Design:Retrospective review of a prospectively collected database.Objective:To predict the occurrence of hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) 30-days postoperatively and to compare predictors of HACs for spine surgery with other common elective surgeries.Methods:Patients ≥18 years undergoing elective spine surgery were identified in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) database from 2005 to 2013. Outcome measures included any HACs: superficial or deep surgical site infection (SSI), venous thromboembolism (VTE), urinary tract infection (UTI). Spine surgery patients were compared with those undergoing other common procedures. Random forest followed by multivariable regression analysis was used to determine risk factors for the occurrence of HACs.Results:A total of 90 551 elective spine surgery patients, of whom 3021 (3.3%) developed at least 1 HAC, 1.4% SSI, 1.3% UTI, and 0.8% VTE. The occurrence of HACs for spine patients was predicted with high ac...