18 Statistics on Morbidity & Mortality in Adult Spine Surgery

In a recent study published in The Spine Journal, researchers sought to study the occurrence of mortality and surgical, medical, major and minor morbidity in adult spine surgery. The results of the study were drawn from 942 consecutive patients (ages 16 to 90) undergoing spine surgery in a 12-month period.

The study found:

• 14 mortalities occurred out of the 942 cases
• 87% of patients had at least one complication
• 73.5% of complications were postoperative
• 13.5% of postoperative complications were due to wound complication
• 8% of postoperative complications were due to delirium
• 7% of postoperative complications were due to pneumonia
• 5% of postoperative complications were due to neuropathic pain
• 4.5% of postoperative complications were due to dysphagia
• 3% of postoperative complications were due to neurological deterioration
• 10.5% of complications were intraoperative
• 4.5% of intraoperative complications were due to incidental durotomy
• 2.2% of intraoperative complications were due to blood loss
• 1.9% of intraoperative complications were due to hardware malposition
• 39% of the patient complications had a negative effect on patient length of stay
• Length of stay ranged from 1 to 221 days
• 13.5 days was the average length of stay

The study concluded that the rate of complication in spine surgery may have been previously underestimated.

More Articles on Spine:
Minimally Invasive vs. Open Posterior Lumbar Instrumentation & Fusion
Hospital for Special Surgery Holds International Meeting for Cervical Spine Surgery
6 Things for Spine Surgeons to Know for Thursday