A new study published in Spine examines hospital resource utilization for spine surgery patients who need treatment for Staphylococcus aureus infection with 180 days of surgery.
The study authors examined infection rates for patients who underwent posterior instrumented spinal fusions from 2010 to 2015. Study authors found:
1. Among the 13,212 patients included in the study, 294 reported a staph infection, and 151 had an invasive infection.
2. The patients who contracted an infection had higher costs than the non-infection group. The patients with an invasive staph infection reported $88,353 total costs, the staph infection group had $64,356 total costs and the non-infection group reported total costs at $47,366.
3. The length of stay was nearly 21 days for the patients with invasive infections, 13.15 days for patients with a regular infection and average, and patients without an infection stayed at the hospital for an average of 6.77 days.
4. Infection groups were associated with higher readmission risk.
5. Study authors suggested reducing readmissions to cut costs.