Preoperative risk-assessment methods, short-term outcome, and patient satisfaction in elective cranial neurosurgery

Background: Preoperative risk assessment and reliable outcome reporting are vital for improving quality of care and patient safety. Studies on neurosurgical patients are surprisingly scarce, and no prospective reports on unselected elective craniotomy patients exist. The objectives of this study were to review the literature on the use of preoperative risk-assessment scores in elective cranial neurosurgery and to study preoperative risk prediction, short-term outcome reporting, and patient satisfaction in the first unselected, prospective cohort of adult elective craniotomy patients. Patients and Methods: We performed a systematic review of 25 studies on five preoperative scores [The American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status classification (ASA) score, the Karnofsky Performance Score (KPS), the modified Rankin Scale (mRS), the Sex, Karnofsky, ASA, Location, and Edema (SKALE) score, and the Charlson comorbidity score] in predicting outcome in elective cranial neurosurgery. We enrolled a prospective, unselected cohort of 418 adult elective craniotomy patients in the Department of Neurosurgery, Helsinki University Hospital. Evaluation of routinely collected preoperative data, original ASA score, Helsinki ASA score, and their combinations revealed their ability to predict in-hospital new central nervous system (CNS) deficits as well as systemic and infectious complications after elective craniotomy. We evaluated the reliability and accuracy of patient-reported outcomes, postoperative mRS scores, and mRS-score differences in reflecting short-term outcome. Overall patient satisfaction rate was determined, as were associations between high or low patient satisfaction and short-term postoperative outcome. Results: Evidence as to the applicability of preoperative risk-assessment scores in elective cranial neurosurgery is scarce, with KPS receiving the most support in the literature. None of the scores predicted all postoperative outcomes; the most applicable risk score varied with the outcome measure selected. The in-hospital mortality rate was 1.0% and the 30-day rate was 2.4%. In-hospital systemic and infectious complications occurred in 6.7% of patients, and new CNS deficits in 11.2%. Advanced age, preoperatively elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) level, and high Helsinki ASA class were independent predictors of systemic and infectious complications. A combination of these variables identified one-fourth of the patients with systemic and infectious complications (p=0.005, OR 4.8, CI 1.5-15.9, AUC 0.766) and was associated with prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay (p=0.018) and hospital stay (p=0.004). The rate of overall complications was 46.4%, and the rate of major complications was 18.2%. Perioperative changes in mRS scores were inconsistent: among patients with no complications, the mRS score increased for 17.1% at hospital discharge and for 23.8% at 30 days. Moreover, 28.0% of patients with major complications showed no increase in mRS scores at hospital discharge. Associations between patient-reported postoperative subjective deterioration in functional status and both major and overall morbidity were significant. Furthermore, a simple unweighted composite score of PROs was more sensitive and specific than was 30-day dependent functional status (mRS score ≥3) in detecting both major and overall morbidity. In our cohort, 93.8% rated their overall satisfaction as good or excellent. Even 9 of 10 patients with postoperative major morbidity rated their satisfaction as high. Low patient satisfaction was associated neither with major (p=0.054) nor with overall (p=0.215) morbidity. Conclusions: Strong evidence supporting the use of any preoperative risk score in elective cranial neurosurgery is lacking. The Helsinki ASA score seems more suitable than the original ASA score for elective craniotomy patients, especially in combination with other preoperative risk predictors, but only for systemic and infectious complications. The rate of major complications in our cohort was moderately low considering the average age, comorbidities and operated lesions of the patients in our unselected study cohort. The postoperative mRS score and mRS-score differences were inconsistent with recorded complications, whereas PROs seem promising tools for outcomes reporting. Overall patient satisfaction was high, even in patients with complicated outcomes, and thus patient satisfaction is a poor proxy for treatment outcome and quality of care in elective cranial neurosurgery.