Impact of SSIs on costs after ambulatory surgery procedures

Editor's Note

Surgical site infections (SSIs), especially serious infections resulting in hospitalization or surgical treatment, were associated with significantly increased health care costs after four common ambulatory surgical procedures, this study finds.

The incidence of serious SSIs was 0.8% after 21,062 anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions, 0.5% after 57,750 cholecystectomies, 0.6% after 60,681 hernia repairs, and 0.8% after 42,489 breast-conserving procedures.

The attributable cost of serious SSIs increased for cholecystectomies and hernia repairs as the quantile of total costs increased ($38,410 for cholecystectomy with serious SSI vs no SSI at the 70^th percentile of costs, up to $89,371 at the 90^th percentile).

Objective: To determine the impact of surgical site infections (SSIs) on health care costs following common ambulatory surgical procedures throughout the cost distribution. Background: Data on costs of SSIs following ambulatory surgery are sparse, particularly variation beyond just mean costs. ...