• Girts Murans, Bengt Gustavsson, and Helena Saraste.
• Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Girts.Murans@ki.se
• J Neurosurg Spine. 2010 Dec 1;13(6):666-71.

ObjectEarly-onset, nonidiopathic spine deformities are frequently caused by intraspinal anomalies necessitating both neurosurgical and orthopedic intervention. The clinical tradition at most treatment units is to perform neurosurgical and orthopedic procedures separately. Sometimes the deformity correction surgery is also done in stages, which leads to several periods of hospitalization, increased use of health care resources, and a long rehabilitation time for the patient. The purpose of this project was to perform an outcome survey for major spine surgery in high-risk patients, and to analyze whether an additional neurosurgical intervention during the same session increased the risk of complications.MethodsA consecutive series of 81 patients with major rigid spine deformities treated by the same orthopedic surgeon was analyzed. In 24 of 81 cases there were additional intraspinal pathological entities indicating a neurosurgical procedure. All cases were divided into 2 groups: one with anterior-posterior surgery and also neurosurgery, and the other with anterior-posterior surgery but without neurosurgery. The result variables for the group comparisons were as follows: clinical and radiographic outcome, operating time, length of intensive care and hospital stay, relative blood loss, and occurrence of complications or adverse events. Groups were similar in terms of sex, size of spinal curve, and surgical procedures, but different in terms of diagnosis (there were more patients with myelomeningocele in the group treated with both anterior-posterior surgery and neurosurgery) and patient age (the group with both anterior-posterior surgery and neurosurgery was younger).ResultsAn additional neurosurgical procedure combined with fusion surgery did not increase the complication rate or use of resources compared with fusion surgery alone, except in the length of operating time. The mean correction of the spinal curve was 56.7%, and the mean correction of the pelvic obliquity was 74.7%. The loss of correction was 3° on average. A more than 10° progression was seen in 9 cases. There were no deaths, and there were no neurological complications or surgery-related deterioration of ambulatory function. There were 10 complications that altered the planned postoperative course, including 5 infections.ConclusionsOne-stage major spine surgery, even when neurosurgery is included, is safe and does not increase the risk of complications. The increase in hospital and ICU stays is marginal.

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