An article recently published in Spine examining how microscope use impacts operating room time and outcomes for spine surgery.
The researchers examined the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database including information from 370 participating hospitals. The data includes spine surgeons who underwent elective procedures with and without a microscope from 2011 and 2012. There were a 23,670 procedures included in the article with 2,226 — or 9.4 percent — using the operating microscope.
Average patient age was around 55 years old. Here are three findings from the study:
1. The average operating room time was 125.7±82 minutes. The microscope was associated with increased operative time, as well as increased time throughout the procedures:
• Preoperative time: Plus two minutes
• Operative time: Plus 13.2 minutes
• Total room time: Plus 18.6 minutes
2. There were 328 patients who had an infection within 30 days of surgery — 1.4 percent.
3. The microscope group and nonmicroscope group had relatively similar infection rates, superficial surgical site infection, deep surgical site infection, organ space infection or sepsis/septic shock. This was true regardless of surgery type.