Traumatic subdural hematoma: Is there a weekend effect?

OBJECTIVE: Traumatic subdural hematoma (TSDH) is a surgical emergency. The effect of weekend admission on surgery and in-hospital outcomes in TSDH is not known.

METHODS: We queried the Nationwide Inpatient Sample from 2002 to 2011 and used ICD-9-CM codes to identify all non-elective admissions with a primary diagnosis of TSDH. We did a subgroup analysis of patients who underwent surgical evacuation. Predictor variables included several patient and hospital characteristics. Outcome variables included length of stay, total hospitalization cost, in-hospital complications, adverse discharge disposition, and in-hospital mortality. We used multivariable analysis to determine if weekend admission was independently associated with increased likelihood of poor outcomes.

RESULTS: Out of a total of 404,212 TSDH admissions, 24.8% received surgical intervention. Patients admitted on weekends were less likely to undergo surgical intervention (odds ratio [OR]: 0.85). In the surgical cohort, weekend admissions consisted of more patients with prolonged loss of consciousness (24+h) without return to baseline (7.0% vs. 4.8%). In all TSDH patients and in sub-group of surgical cohort, weekend admission was associated with an increased likelihood of in-hospital complication (OR: 1.06 and 1.12), prolonged length of stay (OR: 1.08 and 1.17), increased total hospital costs (OR: 1.04 and 1.11), adverse discharge (OR: 1.08 and 1.18), and in-hospital mortality (OR: 1.04 and 1.11). All p-values were less than 0.01.

CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that patients admitted on weekends had similar mortality despite higher severity with no clinically significant weekend effect for tSDH.