We queried the Anesthesia Quality Institute (AQI) Participant User File (PUF) for the National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry (NACOR) to analyze anesthetics performed for knee and hip arthroplasty, as identified by Clinical Classifications Software codes 152 and 153, respectively. Anesthetics were performed in 164,935 joint replacements between 2010 and 2013 in 78 practices across 226 facilities where the primary anesthetic was identified as general, epidural, spinal, or regional. These anesthetics were then grouped as general or regional (epidural, spinal, and regional). Facilities were grouped as university hospitals (university and specialty hospitals), community hospitals (small, medium, and large community hospitals), and surgery centers (attached and freestanding surgery centers). Geographic regions are depicted as specified by United States Census Bureau. Summary statistics are given for the absolute and relative usage of these techniques by geographic region, facility type, and surgical procedure.
Infographic created by Jonathan P. Wanderer, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and James P. Rathmell, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Address correspondence to Dr. Wanderer: jon.wanderer@vanderbilt.edu. Data provided by the Anesthesia Quality Institute, Richard P. Dutton, M.D., M.B.A., Executive Director.
