PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Naessig, Sara
AU  - Pierce, Katherine
AU  - Ahmad, Waleed
AU  - Passfall, Lara
AU  - Krol, Oscar
AU  - Kummer, Nicholas A.
AU  - Williamson, Tyler
AU  - Imbo, Bailey
AU  - Tretiakov, Peter
AU  - Moattari, Kevin
AU  - Joujon-Roche, Rachel
AU  - Zhong, Jack
AU  - Balouch, Eaman
AU  - O’Connell, Brooke
AU  - Maglaras, Constance
AU  - Diebo, Bassel
AU  - Lafage, Renaud
AU  - Lafage, Virginie
AU  - Vira, Shaleen
AU  - Hale, Steven
AU  - Gerling, Michael
AU  - Protopsaltis, Themistocles
AU  - Buckland, Aaron
AU  - Passias, Peter G.
TI  - External Validation of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Calculator Utilizing a Single Institutional Experience for Adult Spinal Deformity Corrective Surgery
AID  - 10.14444/8419
DP  - 2023 Feb 15
TA  - International Journal of Spine Surgery
PG  - 8419
4099  - https://www.ijssurgery.com/content/early/2023/02/15/8419.short
4100  - https://www.ijssurgery.com/content/early/2023/02/15/8419.full
AB  - Background Identify the external applicability of the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) risk calculator in the setting of adult spinal deformity (ASD) and subsets of patients based on deformity and frailty status.Methods ASD patients were isolated in our single-center database and analyzed for the shared predictive variables displayed in the NSQIP calculator. Patients were stratified by frailty (not frail <0.03, frail 0.3–0.5, severely frail >0.5), deformity [T1 pelvic angle (TPA) > 30, pelvic incidence minus lumbar lordosis (PI-LL) > 20], and reoperation status. Brier scores were calculated for each variable to validate the calculator’s predictability in a single center’s database (Quality). External validity of the calculator in our ASD patients was assessed via Hosmer-Lemeshow test, which identified whether the differences between observed and expected proportions are significant.Results A total of 1606 ASD patients were isolated from the Quality database (48.7 years, 63.8% women, 25.8 kg/m2); 33.4% received decompressions, and 100% received a fusion. For each subset of ASD patients, the calculator predicted lower outcome rates than what was identified in the Quality database. The calculator showed poor predictability for frail, deformed, and reoperation patients for the category “any complication” because they had Brier scores closer to 1. External validity of the calculator in each stratified patient group identified that the calculator was not valid, displaying P values >0.05.Conclusion The NSQIP calculator was not a valid calculator in our single institutional database. It is unable to comment on surgical complications such as return to operating room, surgical site infection, urinary tract infection, and cardiac complications that are typically associated with poor patient outcomes. Physicians should not base their surgical plan solely on the NSQIP calculator but should consider multiple preoperative risk assessment tools.Level of Evidence 3.