Evaluation of the utility of hospital databases to provide data in assessing the quality of strabismus surgery

Abstract

Aims and background Rates of re-operation, which may be related to an unsatisfactory surgical outcome, can provide a long-term index of the quality of strabismus surgery. This study aims to evaluate the utility of the Scottish Morbidity Records (SMR1) in determining nature and rates of re-operation for strabismus at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children (RHSC), Glasgow. Methods SMR1 data on strabismus surgery performed on children aged between 0 and 17 years at the RHSC, Glasgow, between January 2000 and March 2009 were analysed. Results In total, 1376 strabismus procedures were carried out on 1274 individuals. The median time between first and subsequent procedures was 19 months; the commonest reasons being under-correction or recurrence. The Kaplan–Meier rate of undergoing re-operation was 7.4% after 9 years with a 95% confidence interval of 5.4–9.9%. Conclusions The SMR1 is a useful source of hospital-based and population data. With supplementation from parallel databases, routine administrative databases like the SMR1 can provide better quality data to inform practice.