Table 4

Measures of health care utilization related to surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis, patients aged 66 years or older, 2007

		n	Mean Length of stay, days(SE)	Mean hospital charges, $ (SE)	Nursing home discharges, n (percent)	Rehospitalization (any cause) within 30 days, n (percent)
Overall		32,152	3.3 (0.02)	$38,476 (123)	4,236 (13.2)	2,936 (9.1)
Age	66–70	8,554	3.0 (0.03)*	40,735 (437)*	566 (6.6)*	627 (7.3)*
	71–74	7,383	3.2 (0.03)	39,443 (444)	709 (9.6)	601 (8.1)
	75–79	8,667	3.3 (0.03)	37,991 (388)	1,258 (14.5)	820 (9.5)
	80+	7,548	3.6 (0.04)	35,526 (382)	1,703 (22.6)	888 (11.8)
Sex	Female	17,243	3.5 (0.02)*	40,446 (295)*	2,848 (16.5)*	1,643 (9.5)*
	Male	14,909	3.1 (0.02)	36,196 (288)	1,388 (9.3)	1,293 (8.7)
Race	White	30,182	3.3 (0.02)*	38,524 (213)*	3,958 (13.1)*	2,754 (9.1)
	Non-white	1,970	3.8 (0.07)	44,992 (909)	278 (14.1)	182 (9.2)
Quan comorbidity score	0	16,631	3.1 (0.02)*	37,885 (292)*	1,859 (11.2)*	1,263 (7.6)*
	1	9,731	3.3 (0.03)	38,552 (361)	1,341 (13.8)	896 (9.2)
	2	3,432	3.7 (0.05)	39,446 (648)	547 (16.0)	405 (11.8)
	3+	2,358	4.1 (0.07)	40,912 (805)	489 (20.7)	372 (15.8)
Previous Spine surgery	Yes	2,196	4.1 (0.07)*	59,309 (1,073)*	3,957 (12.7)	258 (11.7)*
	No	29,956	3.2 (0.02)	36,949 (206)	279 (13.2)	2,678 (8.9)
Hospital stays in previous year (not for spine)	0	24,597	3.2 (0.02)*	38,008 (235)*	2,897 (11.8)*	1,926 (7.8)*
	1	4,836	3.5 (0.04)	39,055 (513)	696 (14.4)	542 (11.2)
	2	1,689	3.8 (0.8)	40,370 (973)	350 (20.7)	249 (14.7)
	3+	1030	4.9 (0.15)	43,820 (1403)	293 (28.4)	219 (21.3)
Type of Surgical procedure	Decompression	21,474	2.7 (0.02)	23,724 (129)*	2,063 (9.6)*	1,667 (7.8)*
	Simple fusion	6,082	4.3 (0.04)	58,511 (506)	1,258 (20.7)	673 (11.1)
	Complex fusion	4,596	4.6 (0.4)	80,888 (753)	915 (19.9)	596 (13.0)
Number of Disc levels fused	None or unknown	21,960	2.8 (0.02)*	25,026 (158)*	2,180 (9.9)*	1,738 (7.9)*
	1–2	8,386	4.2 (0.03)	63,506 (429)	1,612 (19.2)	910 (10.9)
	3 or more	1,806	5.2 (0.08)	85,793 (1,384)	4,44 (24.6)	288 (15.9)

^*Differences among subgroups significant at p<0.05