A new study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine examined surgical site infection for patients who undergo elective spinal surgery.
The researchers examined 723 patients who underwent spine surgery. The researchers found:
1. The prevalence of SSI was 3.5 percent in the test cohort, determined in uni- and multivariate logistic regression models with the performance of the final multivariate logistic regression model assessed by measuring its discriminative ability in ROC analysis.
2. The SSI prevalence among the validation cohorts was 3.9 percent. The performance of the multivariable risk estimation model was tested on this cohort, according to the study abstract.
3. The patient’s age, body mass index and presence of five comorbidities including diabetes, ischemic heart disease, arrhythmia, chronic liver disease and autoimmune disease were risk factors for SSI
4. According to the study abstract, the “c-index of the model was 0.71 showing good discriminative ability” and that was confirmed with independent validation cohort data.
5. The study authors reported further validation is needed, but their results could be used for individual risk assessment and reduction.