Complications in spine surgery A review

J Neurosurg: Spine / Volume 13 / August 2010 The incidence of complications in spinal surgery remains unclear. Authors of previous reports have surmised that between 10 and 20% of patients undergoing surgical spinal procedures suffer adverse events or complications.29,51,53 Most spinal literature consists of retrospective analyses that are assumed to underestimate the complication incidence. In the present study we assessed the different rates of complications reported in prospective and retrospective analyses of spine surgery complications through a systematic review of the spine surgery literature. Many factors may contribute to this divergence in complication incidence. The very definition of a complication in spine surgery is unclear, as is the relevance of purely medical perioperative adverse events to any discussion of complication incidence.75 Medical comorbidities, advanced patient age, and body mass index can contribute to complication incidence, although authors have presented conflicting data.38,80 Ragab et al.80 reportComplications in spine surgery