A study recently published on reoperation rates after spinal metastases surgical treatment examines why patients undergo additional surgery and outcomes after the revision. The results were published in The Spine Journal.
Researchers examined 289 patients who underwent surgery for spinal metastasis over eight years. The researchers found:
1. There were 31 reoperations, or 10.7 percent of patients. The average patient age among all patients was 60 years old.
2. There were 20 reoperations performed during the same admission as the primary procedure while 11 patients underwent a second hospitalization for the revision surgery.
3. The reason for undergoing the revisions were:
• Surgical site infection: 42 percent
• Failure of instrumentation: 29 percent
• Local recurrence: 16 percent
• Haematoma evacuation: 6 percent
• Other: 6 percent
4. The average preoperative and postoperative Frankel scores were similar for both the single surgery and revision surgery groups. The scores were at a grade four.
5. There were 20 patients from the single surgery group — 8 percent — that had worse postoperative scores. There were seven patients — 23 percent — from the revision group had worse postoperative scores.
6. There were not significant differences found between the two groups in the revised Tokuhashi score.
7. Both groups of patients had similar survival days, with the average for the single surgery group being around 250 days. In the revision group was 215 days on average.