Elsevier

World Neurosurgery

Volume 76, Issue 6, December 2011, Pages 548-554
World Neurosurgery

Peer-Review Report
Incidence of Ventricular Shunt Placement for Hydrocephalus with Clipping versus Coiling for Ruptured and Unruptured Cerebral Aneurysms in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample Database: 2002 to 2007

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2011.05.054Get rights and content

Background

Few studies have compared the incidence of ventricular shunt placement for hydrocephalus after clipping versus coiling of cerebral aneurysms.

Objective

The Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database was used to compare, on a national level, the incidence of ventricular shunt placement after clipping versus coiling of ruptured and unruptured aneurysms.

Methods

Hospitalizations for clipping and coiling of ruptured and unruptured aneurysms from 2002 to 2007 were collected from the NIS by cross-matching International Classification of Diseases–9 codes for diagnoses of subarachnoid hemorrhage or unruptured cerebral aneurysm with procedure codes for clipping or coiling. The incidence of ventricular shunt placement for hydrocephalus after clipping and coiling was compared using generalized linear models with generalized estimating equations (GEE) to adjust for patient- and hospital-specific factors and correlation between admissions.

Results

Of 10,899 ruptured aneurysm patients (6593 clipping, 4306 coiling), clipping had a similar incidence of ventricular shunt placement (9.3%) compared to coiling (10.5%) (odds ratio = 0.984; 95% confidence interval = 0.85, −1.14; P value = 0.833 after adjustment for patient-specific and hospital-specific factors). Likewise, of 9686 unruptured aneurysm patients (4483 clipping, 5203 coiling), clipping had similar incidence of ventricular shunt placement (0.4%) compared to coiling (0.5%) (odds ratio = 0.763; 95% confidence interval = 0.37, −1.58; P value = 0.465 after adjustment for patient-specific and hospital-specific factors). Predictors of shunt placement in ruptured aneurysm patients were age, comorbidity score, admission type, payer, and hospital aneurysm volume. Predictors of shunt placement in unruptured aneurysm patients were comorbidity score and admission type.

Conclusions

In an observational study, clipping and coiling of ruptured and unruptured cerebral aneurysms are associated with similar incidences of ventricular shunt placement for hydrocephalus.

Introduction

Few studies have compared the incidence of ventricular shunt placement for hydrocephalus after clipping versus coiling of cerebral aneurysms, all in single-center series, and all in patients with ruptured aneurysms, none with unruptured aneurysms (9, 10, 15, 20, 31, 41). Hydrocephalus requiring ventricular shunt placement after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage is reported to occur over a wide range, from 2.3% to 63.4% of patients (9, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 22, 24, 31, 39, 41), reflecting a significant variation in practices among different neurosurgeons and institutions. This wide variation necessitates a larger, multicenter study with larger numbers of patients. The research question of this study was to use the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database to compare, on a national multicenter level, the incidence of ventricular shunt placement after clipping and coiling of ruptured and unruptured cerebral aneurysms. A secondary objective was to use the NIS to identify the patient-specific and hospital-specific factors that are independent predictors of ventricular shunt placement after cerebral aneurysm treatment.

Section snippets

Patients and Methods

We obtained the NIS database from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (Rockville, Maryland, USA). The NIS is the largest all-payer hospital inpatient database in the United States and contains data approximating a 20% stratified sample of US hospitals. For each sampled hospital, all inpatient admissions for the year are contained in the NIS, so annual case volumes for hospitals can be calculated. The NIS includes data for approximately 8

Comparison of Clipping versus Coiling

A search in the NIS database, years 2002 to 2007, for cross-matches of the ICD-9 diagnosis codes for subarachnoid hemorrhage (430) or unruptured cerebral aneurysm (437.3) with procedure codes for clipping (39.51) or coiling (39.79, 39.72, or 39.52) of cerebral aneurysms yielded 10,899 hospitalizations for ruptured aneurysms (6593 clipping, 4306 coiling); and 9686 hospitalizations for unruptured aneurysms (4483 clipping, 5203 coiling). The patient demographic and hospital characteristics of the

Discussion

Hydrocephalus is a known occurrence in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (9, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 22, 24, 31, 39, 41). Hydrocephalus after treatment of unruptured cerebral aneurysms is very rare, but does occur (6, 13, 21, 26, 27). The incidence of hydrocephalus requiring ventricular shunt placement after cerebral aneurysm treatment is important to investigate because it is associated with poor neurological outcomes, cognitive deficits, and longer hospital length of stay (9, 12, 14

Conclusions

The results of this nationwide analysis demonstrate that clipping and coiling of ruptured and unruptured cerebral aneurysms are associated with similar incidences of ventricular shunt placement. However, age, comorbidity score, admission type, payer, and hospital aneurysm volume are independent predictors of ventricular shunt placement after treatment of ruptured cerebral aneurysms. Furthermore, comorbidity score and admission type are independent predictors of ventricular shunt placement after

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    Conflict of interest statement: B.L.H. has received an honorarium from Codman Neurovascular. J.M. has received an unrestricted educational grant from Boston Scientific; an unrestricted educational grant from and is a consultant for Codman Neurovascular; is a consultant for Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Nfocus, and Lazarus Effect; and has received an honorarium from Edge Therapeutics.

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