Fistula Rate after primary palatal repair with intravelarveloplasty: a retrospective three-year audit of six units (NorCleft) in the UK.

Our aim was to evaluate the rate of fistulation after one-stage palatal repair by intravelarveloplasty in the NorCleft Cleft Services (Scotland and Northern England), this being a primary outcome measure after repair of a cleft palate. We designed a retrospective, three-year clinical audit of six cleft units in the UK, and retrospectively reviewed the casenotes of babies with cleft palate born in 2006-2008 who were treated by intravelarveloplasty. We recorded type of cleft and procedure, including lateral relieving incisions, and our main outcome measure was the presence of a fistula behind the incisive foramen at 3 years of age, or a history of repair of a fistula.

Impact of coding errors on departmental income: an audit of coding of microvascular free tissue transfer cases using OPCS-4 in UK.

Since the introduction of "Payment by Results", departmental income has been linked to clinical activity, and the coding of theatre activity (Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys Classification of Surgical Operations and Procedures (4th revision), OPCS-4) must be accurate and timely. We assess the accuracy of OPCS-4 coding for patients having microvascular free tissue transfer for head and neck cancer, and evaluate the impact it has on departmental income. Codes for a consecutive cohort of patients were checked to identify inaccuracies and the tariffs were recalculated.