24-hour and 30-day perioperative mortality in pediatric surgery

The low perioperative mortality rate in pediatric surgery precludes effective analysis of mortality at individual institutions. Therefore, analysis of multi-institutional data is essential to determine any patterns of perioperative death in children. The aim of this study was to determine diagnoses associated with 24-hour and 30-day perioperative mortality. A retrospective review of the 2012-2015 Pediatric Participant Use Data File (PUF) was performed. Statistical comparisons were made between survivors and nonsurvivors and between those with 24-hour and 30-day mortality using Fischer’s exact tests. P-values ≤ 0.05 were considered significant. 103,444 patients who underwent a pediatric surgical operation were evaluated. There were 732 deaths with a 30-day perioperative mortality of 0.7% (732/103,444). Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) was the diagnosis associated with the highest 30-day perioperative mortality (175/901, 19%). A significantly higher proportion NEC deaths occurred in the first 24 hours (67% (118/175) vs 33% (57/175) 30 day mortality, p