Epidemiology of Hospital Admissions for Craniosynostosis in Australia: A Population-Based Study
Open accessAbstract
To describe trends, age, and sex-specific patterns of population hospital admissions with a diagnosis of craniosynostosis (CS) in Australia. Population data for hospital separations (in-patient) from public and private hospitals (July 1996-June 2018) were obtained from the publicly available Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) National Hospital Morbidity Database. The outcome variables were hospital separation rates (HSR) (number of hospital separations divided by the estimated resident population [ERP] per year) and average length of stay (aLOS) (patient days divided by the number of hospital separations) with a diagnosis of CS. Trends in HSR and aLOS adjusted for age, sex, and type of CS were investigated by negative binomial regression presented as annual percent change (APC). In 8057 admissions identified, we observed no significant change in the annual trend for HSR for the 22-year period. However, a marginal annual decrease of 1.6% (95% CI: -0.7, -2.4) in the aLOS was identified for the same time period. HSR were higher for males, infants, and single suture synostosis. aLOS was 3.8 days (95% CI: 3.8, 3.9) per visit, longer for syndromic conditions. There was a minor reduction in the average length of hospital stay for CS over the 22-year period potentially indicative of improved care. Population-level information on hospitalisations for rare craniofacial conditions can inform research, clinical, and surgical practice.
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The majority of studies reported an odds ratio of male occurring CS ranging from 1.46 to 4.5, with a geometric mean of ~2.7.
“The majority of the studies studied the odds ratio of male occurring CS with an OR ranging from 1.46 to 4.5 (with geometric mean of ~ 2.7) [2, 3, 15, 26, 50, 53, 74, 80, 82, 86, 96–98, 102, 103, 117].”
From Genetics versus environment in the pathophysiology of sagittal synostosis (2026) · cites this paper as [74]
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“Furthermore, it will be critical that health system coding (Orphacodes) is granular and can accommodate for clinical grouping that can accommodate meaningful and accurate classification including for syndromic and rare causes of CS.31”
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“Individuals born with syndromic CS, however, have prolonged service contacts when compared to those born with single suture synostosis.(27,6) As most syndromic CS has an underlying genetic cause, better access to genetic diagnostic testing may provide an opportunity for increasing the precision of service planning.”
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“syndromic CS could also be influenced by underlying noncraniofacial structural or functional comorbidities.(28,6) We observed a similar length of hospital stay for infants (under 1 year of age) with single suture synostosis in Australia to those undergoing management for non-syndromic CS in the United States of Americ…”
BackgroundChanging Epidemiology of Nonsyndromic Craniosynostosis and Revisiting the Risk Factors
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“4 in 1000 births and 80% of cases).(2,3) Syndromic presentations are much less prevalent ranging from 1 in 35 000 (Crouzon syndrome) to 1 in 170 000 (Pfeiffer syndrome) births.”
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“Furthermore, it will be critical that health system coding (Orphacodes) is granular and can accommodate for clinical grouping that can accommodate meaningful and accurate classification including for syndromic and rare causes of CS.31”
BackgroundInfluentialAge at Time of Craniosynostosis Repair Predicts Increased Complication Rate
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Imaging in craniosynostosis: when and what?
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“These findings are likely a consequence of refined surgical protocols, better anesthetic techniques, improved perioperative management, and surgical planning (to a lesser extent) through the use of enhanced diagnostic techniques (computed tomographic [CT] scans, threedimensional craniofacial analysis).(23,24,22) A lar…”
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“We observed a similar length of hospital stay for infants (under 1 year of age) with single suture synostosis in Australia to those undergoing management for non-syndromic CS in the United States of America, reflecting similar treatment practices.(29) These differences in overall HSR could likely be explained by diffe…”
BackgroundAnaesthetic management for craniosynostosis repair in children
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“Over time, surgical treatment for CS per se, has evolved from strip craniotomies to minimally invasive procedures (endoscopic suture release with helmet modeling) with the latter exhibiting minimal postoperative complications.(5) However, surgical management of CS incurs high costs and lengthy hospital visits which ar…”
MethodEvolving Trends of Gastrostomy Insertion Within a Pediatric Population
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“The APC was calculated by exponentiating the beta coefficient of the time variable (ie year group) and subtracting 1.(18) The association of separation rates and aLOS with age (data available: 1996-2018), sex (data available: 1996-2018), and type of CS (data available: 2002-2018) was assessed using the same modeling a…”
MethodSelf-citationGene/environment interactions in craniosynostosis: A brief review
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“These might reflect those admissions related to patterns of diagnosis (delayed diagnosis), increased waiting times between specialist diagnosis and elective surgery, surgical timing of cases (delayed especially for syndromic CS), postsurgical complications, major revision procedures, and/or continued treatment for spe…”
BackgroundDescription of total population hospital admissions for cleft lip and/or palate in Australia
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“Furthermore, it will be critical that health system coding (Orphacodes) is granular and can accommodate for clinical grouping that can accommodate meaningful and accurate classification including for syndromic and rare causes of CS.31”
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“Furthermore, it will be critical that health system coding (Orphacodes) is granular and can accommodate for clinical grouping that can accommodate meaningful and accurate classification including for syndromic and rare causes of CS.31”
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“These findings are likely a consequence of refined surgical protocols, better anesthetic techniques, improved perioperative management, and surgical planning (to a lesser extent) through the use of enhanced diagnostic techniques (computed tomographic [CT] scans, threedimensional craniofacial analysis).(23,24,22) A lar…”
Backgroundmanagement of craniosynostosis in Australia and New Zealand
Ziaziaris, W. A., & Marucci, D. D. (2019) · Australasian Journal of Plastic Surgery · doi:10.34239/ajops.v2i1.98 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
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Junaid, M. A., Slack-Smith, L. M., Wong, K., Bourke, J., Baynam, G. S., Calache, H., & Leonard, H. (2022) · Pediatric Research · doi:10.1038/s41390-022-02024-9 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
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Hollamby, A. J., Song, E., Roberts, R., & Osborn, A. J. (2025) · The Journal of craniofacial surgery (Print) · doi:10.1097/scs.0000000000011394
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Psychosocial Support for Australian Families Impacted by Craniosynostosis: A Qualitative Study
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Self-citationDhiman, S., Panigrahi, I., Padhi, B. K., Gupta, S., Satapathy, P., Khatib, M. N., Gaidhane, S., Kaur, H., Sharma, M., Zahiruddin, Q. S., et al. (2024) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-4443370/v1
Lived experience as guidance: A qualitative study of parental advice for craniosynostosis
Silvestri, T. P., Osborn, A. J., & Roberts, R. (2026) · Journal of Child Health Care · doi:10.1177/13674935261476741
- Authors
- Junaid, M., Slack-Smith, L., Wong, K., Baynam, G., Calache, H., Hewitt, T., & Leonard, H.
- Affiliations
- The Kids Research Institute Australia (AU)
- Deakin University (AU)
- Princess Margaret Hospital for Children (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Junaid, Mohammed
- ORCID
- Venue
- The Cleft Palate Craniofacial Journal
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2022-02-07
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 569-576
- ISSN
- 1055-6656 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-1569
- OpenAlex
- W4210286432
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 1.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Locations
- The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Stan Perron Charitable Foundation
- Australian Government International RTP Scholarhsip (UWA22647757)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Craniofacial Disorders and Treatments
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Cleft Lip and Palate Research
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
- Keywords
- craniosynostosis, hospitalization, length of hospital stay, temporal trends, sex differences, age differences, syndromic craniosynostosis, craniofacial conditions, Australia
- MeSH terms
- Australia, Craniosynostoses, Female, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Humans, Infant, Length of Stay, Male
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