Predictors of never events in patients undergoing radical dissection of cervical lymph nodes

Objective. The aim of this study was to identify variables associated with infection-related never events in patients undergoing radical neck dissections for head and neck cancer. Study Design. All hospitalizations with head and neck cancer that underwent radical dissection of cervical lymph nodes were selected from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Predictor variables included patient and hospital-level factors. Outcome variable was occurrence of >= 1 never events. Association between predictor and outcome variables was examined by using bivariate and multivariable logistic regression models. Results. There were 10,660 hospitalizations. At least 1 never event occurred in 7.8% of hospitalizations. Teaching hospitals were associated with higher odds of having >= 1 never event compared with nonteaching hospitals (odds ratio 1.92; P = .02). Presence of comorbid conditions and race were other significant predictors of never events. Conclusions. Teaching hospitals and presence of comorbid conditions were associated with higher odds of experiencing a never event.