Neurosurg Focus
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Review Meta Analysis
Unintended durotomy in lumbar degenerative spinal surgery: a 10-year systematic review of the literature.
OBJECT Unintended durotomy is a common occurrence during lumbar spinal surgery, particularly in surgery for degenerative spinal conditions, with the reported incidence rate ranging from 0.3% to 35%. The authors performed a systematic literature review on unintended lumbar spine durotomy, specifically aiming to identify the incidence of durotomy during spinal surgery for lumbar degenerative conditions. In addition, the authors analyzed the incidence of durotomy when minimally invasive surgical approaches were used as compared with that following a traditional midline open approach. ⋯ In studies of matched cohorts comparing open-approach surgery with MISS, the durotomy rates were 7.20% (34 durotomies) and 7.02% (68), respectively, which were not significantly different. CONCLUSIONS Spinal surgery for lumbar degenerative disease carries a significant rate of unintended durotomy, regardless of the surgical approach selected by the surgeon. Interpretation of unintended durotomy rates for lumbar surgery is limited by a lack of prospective and cohort-matched controlled studies.
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Review Meta Analysis
Complications of intraoperative epidural steroid use in lumbar discectomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
OBJECT The authors' aim in this paper was to review the intraoperative use of epidural steroids in lumbar discectomy surgery with a focus on surgical complications. METHODS A comprehensive literature search was done using PubMed, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials. Relevant papers were retrieved and analyzed. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS There is good evidence that epidural steroids can decrease pain in the short term and decrease the usage of postoperative narcotics after lumbar spinal surgery for degenerative spinal disease. The authors' results demonstrate a trend toward increased infection with epidural steroid use, but there was not a statistically significant difference. More studies are needed to validate the long-term risk/benefit ratio of epidural steroids in lumbar discectomy.
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Review Meta Analysis
Thirty-day readmission rates in spine surgery: systematic review and meta-analysis.
OBJECT The rate of 30-day readmissions is rapidly gaining significance as a quality metric and is increasingly used to evaluate performance. An analysis of the present 30-day readmission rate in the spine literature is needed to aid the development of policies to decrease the frequency of readmissions. The authors examine 2 questions: 1) What is the 30-day readmission rate as reported in the spine literature? 2) What study factors impact the rate of 30-day readmissions? METHODS This study was registered with Prospera (CRD42014015319), and 4 electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Google Scholar) were searched for articles. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS The 30-day readmission rate following spinal surgery is between 4.2% and 7.4%. The range, rather than the exact result, should be considered given the significant heterogeneity among studies, which indicates that there are factors such as demographics, procedure types, and individual institutional factors that are important and affect this outcome variable. The pooled analysis of risk factors and causes of readmission is limited by the lack of reporting in most of the spine literature.
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Review Meta Analysis
Comparison of complication rates of minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion and lateral lumbar interbody fusion: a systematic review of the literature.
OBJECT Minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MI-TLIF) and lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) are 2 currently popular techniques for lumbar arthrodesis. The authors compare the total risk of each procedure, along with other important complication outcomes. METHODS This systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS While there was a higher overall complication rate with LLIF, MI-TLIF and LLIF both have acceptable complication profiles. LLIF had higher rates of sensory as well as temporary and permanent neurological symptoms, although rates of intraoperative and wound complications were less than MI-TLIF. Larger, prospective comparative studies are needed to confirm these findings as the current literature is of relative poor quality.
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Review
Complications from the use of intrawound vancomycin in lumbar spinal surgery: a systematic review.
OBJECT The use of intrawound vancomycin is rapidly being adopted for the prevention of surgical site infection (SSI) in spinal surgery. At operative closure, the placement of vancomycin powder in the wound bed-in addition to standard infection prophylaxis-can provide high concentrations of antibiotics with minimal systemic absorption. However, despite its popularity, to date the majority of studies on intrawound vancomycin are retrospective, and there are no prior reports highlighting the risks of routine treatment. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS Intrawound vancomycin use appears to be safe and effective for reducing postoperative SSIs with a low rate of morbidity. Study disparities and limitations in size, patient populations, designs, and outcomes measures contribute significant bias that could not be fully rectified by this systematic review. Moreover, care should be exercised in the use of intrawound vancomycin due to the lack of well-designed, prospective studies that evaluate the efficacy of vancomycin and include the appropriate systems to capture drug-related complications.