Postoperative complications in elective and non-elective neurosurgery Complicações pós-operatórias em neurocirurgia eletiva e não eletiva

Escola Paulista de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Conflicts to interest: none to declare. Abstract Objective: To evaluate the incidence of postoperative complications and mortality among patients submitted to elective or non-elective neurosurgery. Methods: Prospective cohort study in adult patients, followed from preoperative period until hospital discharge or death. Results: One hundred and twenty seven patients were included in elective surgery group and 75 patients in non-elective surgery group. The elective group had more vomiting (p=0.010) and pain (p<0.001) and the non-elective group presented more intracranial hypertension (p=0.001), anisocoria (p=0.002), cerebral vasospasm (p=0.043), light-unresponsive pupil (p=0.006) and reoperation (p=0.046). The mortality rate was 5.5% in the elective surgery group and 26.7% in the non-elective surgery group (p<0.001). Conclusion: Elective procedures in neurosurgery are related to higher frequencies of systemic complications while non-elective surgeries had significantly higher rates of neurological complications and mortality.