Spine surgeons and researchers recently published an article in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery comparing complications, reoperation rates and costs for patients undergoing surgery for lumbar spondylolisthesis.
The researchers followed 16,556 patients who underwent surgical treatment from 2000 to 2009. Patients were followed for 90 days and received either decompression, decompression with instrumented arthrodesis or decompression with non-instrumented arthrodesis. Researchers found:
• Complication rates were similar between those who received instrumented and non-instrumented arthrodesis.
• Decompression alone showed higher reoperation rates at two years or more than arthrodesis.
• Instrumented arthrodesis patients had higher reoperation rates than those without instrumentation at five years or more.
• The initial, two-year and five-year hospital costs were higher for arthrodesis patients than decompression patients — $102,906 versus $89,337.
• Instrumentation was associated with higher hospitalization costs than patients who received arthrodesis without instrumentation — $39,997 versus $27,309.
• Instrumentation was also associated with higher hospital costs at two years — $73,482 versus $60,394.
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