United States neurosurgery annual case type and complication trends between 2006 and 2013: An American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program analysis

• The complication rate among NSQIP neurosurgery patients fell between 2005 and 2013.
• The proportion of spinal cases reported in NSQIP increased during this time period.
• Several predictors of complications were identified on multivariate analysis.

We aimed to identify trends in the neurosurgical practice environment in the United States from 2006 to 2013 using the American College of Surgeons–National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database, and to determine the complication rate for spinal and cranial procedures and identify risk factors for post-operative complications across this time period. We performed a search of the American College of Surgeons–NSQIP database for all patients undergoing an operation with a surgeon whose primary specialty was neurological surgery from 2006 to 2013. Analysis of patient demographics and pre-operative co-morbidities was performed, and multivariate analysis was used to determine predictors of surgical complications. From 2006 to 2013, the percentage of spinal operations performed by neurosurgeons relative to cranial and peripheral nerve cases increased from 68.0% to 76.8% (p < 0.001) according to the NSQIP database. The proportion of cranial cases during the same time period decreased from 29.7% to 21.6% (p < 0.001). The overall 30-day complication rate among all 94,621 NSQIP reported patients undergoing operations with a neurosurgeon over this time period was 8.2% (5.6% for spinal operations, 16.1% for cranial operations). The overall rate decreased from 11.0% in 2006 to 7.5% in 2013 (p < 0.001). Several predictors of post-operative complication were identified on multivariate analysis.