Intracranial meningioma resection is associated with multiple acute post-operative complications, including cerebrovascular accidents, surgical site infections, and pneumonia. There is a paucity of research on the postoperative timeframe of these complications. Therefore, our objective is to characterize intracranial meningioma resection complications’ time courses.
The National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (NSQIP) registry was queried for intracranial meningioma resection cases using CPT codes 61512 and 61519 from years 2016-2021. Baseline patient characteristics and 30-day complication frequency were calculated. The mean, median, and interquartile range of post-operative days to occurrence for 17 complications were calculated. Percent incidence pre-discharge was recorded. Time-to-occurrence curves were created. Rates of 30-day mortality and increased length-of-stay were compared between patients with and without each complication using a chi-square test. A covariance matrix showing associations between 11 complications using the Pearson method was made. Significance was set at p<0.05.
10,890 cases were analyzed. The most frequent complications’ median and interquartile range of post-operative days to occurrence and percentage occurring pre-discharge were bleeding requiring transfusion (0.0, 0.0-0.0, 99.9%), CVA/stroke with neurological deficit (2.0, 1.0-6.0, 83.8%), unplanned intubation (4.0, 1.0-8.0, 75.1%), on a ventilator for >48 hours (3.0; 2.0-5.5; 88.1%), deep vein thrombosis (DVT)/thrombophlebitis (12.5, 5.2-19.7, 41.3%), urinary tract infection (13.0, 7.0-20.0, 44.2%), pneumonia (8.0, 4.0-16.0, 60.5%), and pulmonary embolism (14.0, 6.0-20.0, 29.1%). Most complications were associated with increased mortality and length-of-stay.
Post-operative meningioma resection complications have varying morbidity and timeframes. Surgeons should be aware of complication timing to better manage post-operative care.

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