A study of 11,827 surgical cases revealed that ICD-10 codes identified only 20.8% of postoperative complications (PCs) compared to 1047 PCs identified through manual curation. Patients with PCs faced significantly increased resource utilization, including a 6.6 times higher readmission rate and considerable economic costs, amounting to €25.5 million annually just from additional admission days. These findings highlight the shortcomings of ICD-10 coding in monitoring surgical quality and necessitate improved detection methods.
Journal Article by Dencker EE, Bonde A (…) Sillesen M et 2 al. in Scand J Surg