Search

Background: Perioperative steroids have traditionally been administered during lumbar spine surgery in order to decrease local inflammation and prevent scar tissue formation, which can otherwise contribute to significant, long-lasting postoperative pain due to the formation of epidural fibrosis around lumbar nerve roots. However, the use of steroids in lumbar spine patients has raised concerns of postoperative wound complications caused by corticosteroid-induced immunomodulatory effects and changes in collagen synthesis. Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) undergoing spine surgery are at a particularly elevated risk of various complications due to chronic CKD-related systemic inflammation and endothelial dysfunction. It is currently uncertain whether chronic steroid use in CKD patients exerts a protective effect postoperatively due to decreased systemic inflammation or instead is correlated with increased rates of wound complications., Results: Using adjusted odds ratios to control for CKD-related comorbidities, our study of lumbar spine fusion patients who were chronic steroid users vs nonusers found no significant differences in rates of postoperative wound infections in later stage CKD patients. However, we also did not observe statistically significant reductions in hospital length of stay or rates of 30-day mortality, sepsis, or cardiac, pulmonary, and renal events., Conclusions: Our results indicate chronic steroid use neither contributes significantly to rates of wound infections nor exerts a protective effect against postoperative inflammatory complications in lumbar spine patients with CKD., Clinical Relevance: Our findings do not support the practice of holding steroids in chronic users prior to lumbar spine surgery. Perioperative steroids do not appear to increase the risk of postoperative complications, but neither do they improve lumbar spine patient outcomes., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests : The authors report no conflicts of interest or relevant disclosures related to this work., (This manuscript is generously published free of charge by ISASS, the International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery. Copyright © 2023 ISASS. To see more or order reprints or permissions, see http://ijssurgery.com.)

Aim: To investigate the impact of obesity on postoperative morbidity and mortality in patients who underwent anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF)., Material and Methods: The American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (NSQIP) files from 2006 to 2019 were queried for all patients who underwent an ACDF. Fisher exact tests were used in analyzing univariate differences in preoperative comorbidities and postoperative morbidity and mortality between patients with and without obesity (BMI ?30 kg/ m < sup > 2 < /sup > ). Results with a p value < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Multivariable logistic regression models were used in determining the independent impact of obesity on ACDF postoperative morbidity and mortality. A p value < 0.017 was required for multivariate statistical significance., Results: There were 96,882 patients who underwent an ACDF from 2006 to 2019 found. 53.77% had non-obese BMI. Patients had statistically significant differences in most perioperative comorbidities and postoperative outcomes on univariate analysis. On multivariate analysis, patients with obesity has decreased adjusted odds of wound infections (aOR=0.7208, CI 0.574-0.9075, p=0.0053), pulmonary events (aOR=0.7939, CI 0.6903-0.9129, p=0.0012), sepsis (aOR=0.5670, CI 0.4359-0.7374, p=2.32E-05), transfusion requirements (aOR=0.5396, CI 0.4498-0.6473, p=3.04E-11), return to operating room (aOR=0.7537, CI 0.6727-0.8447, p=1.17E-06), and length of stay > 10 days (aOR=0.7061, CI 0.6438-0.7744, p=1.49E-13)., Conclusion: Obesity is a protective factor toward ACDF postoperative complications. Obesity as a marker of patient selection criteria for ACDF procedures should not be used by spine surgeons.