Most surgeons consider wrong level surgery, esophageal injury, retained drain and spinal cord injury to be unacceptable and uncommon complications of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, according to Cervical Spine Research Society survey results reported in Clinical Spine Surgery.
Here are three things to know:
1. The survey was distributed to surgeon attendees at the 2015 CSRS meeting, who were asked to categorize 18 anterior cervical discectomy and fusion–related adverse events by acceptability and frequency.
2. Based on the 115 responses received, the surgeons reported dysphagia and adjacent segment disease occurred most often but were acceptable complications.
3. Practice location significantly impacted responses for 12 of the 18 complications: non-U.S. surgeons were more likely to categorize events as more uncommon and unacceptable compared with U.S. surgeons.
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