Object

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measures have become the mainstay for outcome appraisal in spine surgery. Clinically meaningful interpretation of HRQOL improvement has centered on the minimum clinically important difference (MCID). The purpose of this study was to calculate clinically important deterioration (CIDET) thresholds and determine a CIDET value for each HRQOL measure for patients undergoing lumbar fusion.

开云体育世界杯赔率

Seven hundred twenty-two patients (248 males, 127 smokers, mean age 60.8 years) were identified with complete preoperative and 1-year postoperative HRQOLs including the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), and numeric rating scales (0–10) for back and leg pain following primary, instrumented, posterior lumbar fusion. Anchor-based and distribution-based methods were used to calculate CIDET for each HRQOL. Anchor-based methods included change score, change difference, and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The Health Transition Item, an independent item of the SF-36, was used as the external anchor. Patients who responded “somewhat worse” and “much worse” were combined and compared with patients responding “about the same.” Distribution-based methods were minimum detectable change and effect size.

Results

Diagnoses included spondylolisthesis (n = 332), scoliosis (n = 54), instability (n = 37), disc pathology (n = 146), and stenosis (n = 153). There was a statistically significant change (p < 0.0001) for each HRQOL measure from preoperatively to 1-year postoperatively. Only 107 patients (15%) reported being “somewhat worse” (n = 81) or “much worse” (n = 26). Calculation methods yielded a range of CIDET values for ODI (0.17–9.06), SF-36 physical component summary (−0.32 to 4.43), back pain (0.02–1.50), and leg pain (0.02–1.50).

Conclusions

A threshold for clinical deterioration was difficult to identify. This may be due to the small number of patients reporting being worse after surgery and the variability across methods to determine CIDET thresholds. Overall, it appears that patients may interpret the absence of change as deterioration.

Object

Although lumbar fusion is effective in well-selected patients, it is not without complications associated with short-term morbidity. There is a paucity of literature on the effect of these complications on long-term clinical outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine whether perioperative complications—that is, those occurring within 30 days after surgery—alter the long-term clinical outcomes after lumbar fusion.

开云体育世界杯赔率

The authors retrospectively reviewed surgical and clinical databases for the period from 2001 to 2008 to identify patients who had undergone instrumented lumbar spinal fusion and had complete preoperative and 2-year postoperative outcome measures data. Outcome measures included the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) Physical Component Summary, SF-36 Mental Component Summary, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and Numeric Rating Scales (0–10) for back and leg pain.

Three patient groups were created for comparison—one with major complications, one with only minor complications, and another with no complications—using propensity matching techniques based on demographics, baseline clinical outcome scores, and surgical characteristics. Preoperative and 2-year postoperative outcome scores in the groups were compared. One-way ANOVA was used to compare continuous variables, and the Fisher exact test was used to compare categorical variables between the groups. Significance was set at p < 0.001.

Results

In the database with 1144 patients, 81 had a major complication. Of these 81 patients, 78 were propensity matched to a similar group of patients with minor complications and another group with no complications. Comparison of the 3 groups revealed that 2-year postoperative outcomes were not statistically different for any of the measures. Overall ODI at 2 years was better in patients having no complications (39.6) or only minor complications (37.0) than in those having major complications (44.5), but this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.074). The proportion of patients reaching a minimum clinically important difference (MCID) for ODI was statistically significantly smaller in the major complication group (31%) than in the minor complication (51%) and no complication groups (65%; p < 0.001).

Conclusions

A smaller proportion of patients achieved MCID for ODI 2 years after a major perioperative complication following lumbar fusion than after a minor complication or no complications.

Object

The Neck Disability Index (NDI) and numeric rating scales (0 to 10) for neck pain and arm pain are widely used cervical spine disease–specific measures. Recent studies have shown that there is a strong relationship between the SF-6D and the NDI such that using a simple linear regression allows for the estimation of an SF-6D value from the NDI alone. Due to ease of administration and scoring, the EQ-5D is increasingly being used as a measure of utility in the clinical setting. The purpose of this study is to determine if the EQ-5D values can be estimated from commonly available cervical spine disease–specific health-related quality of life measures, much like the SF-6D.

开云体育世界杯赔率

The EQ-5D, NDI, neck pain score, and arm pain score were prospectively collected in 3732 patients who presented to the authors' clinic with degenerative cervical spine disorders. Correlation coefficients for paired observations from multiple time points between the NDI, neck pain and arm pain scores, and EQ-5D were determined. Regression models were built to estimate the EQ-5D values from the NDI, neck pain, and arm pain scores.

Results

The mean age of the 3732 patients was 53.3 ± 12.2 years, and 43% were male. Correlations between the EQ-5D and the NDI, neck pain score, and arm pain score were statistically significant (p < 0.0001), with correlation coefficients of −0.77, −0.62, and −0.50, respectively. The regression equation 0.98947 + (−0.00705 × NDI) + (−0.00875 × arm pain score) + (−0.00877 × neck pain score) to predict EQ-5D had an R-square of 0.62 and a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.146. The model using NDI alone had an R-square of 0.59 and a RMSE of 0.150. The model using the individual NDI items had an R-square of 0.46 and an RMSE of 0.172. The correlation coefficient between the observed and estimated EQ-5D scores was 0.79. There was no statistically significant difference between the actual EQ-5D score (0.603 ± 0.235) and the estimated EQ-5D score (0.603 ± 0.185) using the NDI, neck pain score, and arm pain score regression model. However, rounding off the coefficients to fewer than 5 decimal places produced less accurate results.

Conclusions

The regression model estimating the EQ-5D from the NDI, neck pain score, and arm pain score accounted for 60% of the variability of the EQ-5D with a relatively large RMSE. This regression model may not be sufficient to accurately or reliably estimate actual EQ-5D values.

Object

Recent studies have reported the incidence of superior facet joint violation using percutaneous techniques. These techniques have not been compared with the open midline approach. An increased incidence of superior facet violation may lead to adjacent-segment disease. In this paper, the authors' goal is to compare the rate of superior facet violation with the use of percutaneously placed pedicle screws versus midline approach open placement.

开云体育世界杯赔率

Patients who underwent a single-level fusion using a percutaneous approach from L-1 to S-1 who had undergone CT scanning within 1 year after surgery were identified. A cohort who underwent open fusion matched by level of surgery was identified. All CT scans were reviewed by 3 fellowship-trained spine surgeons to determine the degree of facet violation. The final categorization for each screw was based on the most frequent reading among the 6 evaluations. The Fisher test was used to determine the association of facet violation with approach.

Results

There were 66 patients in each group. Patients in the Percutaneous group were younger (mean 42.5 years) than those in the Open group (mean 57.8 years, p = 0.000). There was no statistically significant difference in sex distribution, surgical levels fused, or time between surgery and CT scan between the groups. Thirty-six (13.6%) of 264 screws in the percutaneous and 16 (6%) of 263 screws in the Open group were in the facet joint (p = 0.005). Of these, 17 (12%) of the 132 proximal screws in the percutaneous and 7 (5%) of the 131 proximal screws in the Open group were in the facet joint (p = 0.052).

Conclusions

The use of a percutaneous method to insert pedicle screws results in a statistically significantly higher incidence of facet joint violation, even if only proximal screws are considered. Further studies are needed to determine if this leads to a higher incidence of symptomatic adjacent-level disease.

Object

The current standard of care for symptomatic chronic spondylolysis (SP) is a one-level posterior spinal fusion for defects at L-5 or direct pars repair (motion segment sparing) for more rostral SP in younger patients and if no disc degeneration or listhesis is present. Since many patients with SP undergoing operative repair are young, a procedure with the lowest biomechanical profile is desirable, and direct pars repair is recommended. The authors here explore the limits of direct pars repair.

开云体育世界杯赔率

A retrospective review of all patients who underwent direct repair of SP between 2002 and 2009 was performed. Data were analyzed for predictors of symptom relief and radiographic fusion failure.

Results

Of 49 patients, only 7 required a reoperation to treat clinical symptoms, and 6 of them were female (p = 0.049). In all cases of treatment failure, the patient had bilateral L-5 SP. Patients with a slip percentage as high as 30% experienced radiographic fusion and symptom relief. Disc degeneration (measured using the Modified Pfirrmann Scale) did not predict symptom persistence or radiographic fusion failure. Patients with high-grade disc disease experienced symptom relief. The authors found no predictors of treatment failure.

Conclusions

The number of patients undergoing motion segment–sparing fusions of symptomatic chronic SP can be safely increased to include patients with Grade I spondylolisthesis as well as high-grade disc disease. Female patients with bilateral L-5 SP and low lordotic angles may be better served by a posterior spinal fusion from L-5 to S-1.