Orthopedic surgeons are more likely to encounter perioperative bleeding, requiring transfusion, during posterior cervical decompression and fusion than neurosurgeons, according to a study in Spine.
The study featured 1,221 patients at a single institution and 11,116 patients within the National Surgical Quality Improvement Project database who underwent PCDF.
Patients who were treated by an orthopedic surgeon had a greater proportion of bleeding in both the institutional sample — 14.5 percent versus 9.8 percent receiving neurosurgery service — and national sample –– 11.16 percent compared to 6.8 percent.
In the national sample, orthopedic surgeons were 1.66 times more likely to encounter an in-hospital complication than neurosurgeons.