High-risk patients are 40 percent more likely to experience life-threatening complications after surgery, according to kcrg.com.
Here are five things to know:
1. Weill Cornell physicians researched how to perform complex spinal surgery for high-risk patients, more safely.
2. They analyzed 100 surgeries combining neurology and plastic surgery.
3. Researchers found high-risk patients undergoing combined neurology and plastic surgery experienced only a 7 percent rate of complications.
4. Jason Spector, MD, a plastic surgeon at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, said he closes the wound following surgery to ensure muscles bring in good blood supply.
5. The faster healing allows patients to return to their normal lives, quickly.