Avoidable Emergency Department Utilization Within 6 Months Following Elective Thoracolumbar Spine Surgery for Degenerative Pathologies.

Study Design: Retrospective study.

Objective: To identify prevalence of, reasons for, and predictors of emergency department (ED) utilization 6 months following elective thoracolumbar spine surgery.

Methods: A retrospective review of a patient database was conducted (N = 577).

Elevated Patient Body Mass Index Does Not Negatively Affect Self-Reported Outcomes of Thoracolumbar Surgery: Results of a Comparative Observational Study with Minimum 1-Year Follow-Up.

Study Design Retrospective study. Objective Quantify the effect of obesity on elective thoracolumbar spine surgery patients. Methods Five hundred consecutive adult patients undergoing thoracolumbar spine surgery to treat degenerative pathologies with minimum follow-up of at least 1 year were included.

The Incidence of Adjacent Segment Breakdown in Polysegmental Thoracolumbar Fusions of Three or More Levels with Minimum 5-Year Follow-up.

Study Design Retrospective cohort study. Objective To identify the incidence of adjacent segment pathology (ASP) after thoracolumbar fusion of three or more levels, the risk factors for the development of ASP, and the need for further surgical intervention in this particular patient population. Methods A retrospective analysis of a prospective surgical database identified 217 patients receiving polysegmental (≥ 3 levels) spinal fusion with minimum 5-year follow-up.

Transforaminal epidural steroid injections prevent the need for surgery in patients with sciatica secondary to lumbar disc herniation: a retrospective case series.

Background: The median orthopedic surgery wait time in Canada is 33.7 weeks, thus alternative treatments for pathologies such as lumbar disc herniations (LDH) are needed. We sought to determine whether transforaminal epidural steroid injections (TFESIs) alleviate or merely delay the need for surgery.

Postoperative improvement in health-related quality of life: a national comparison of surgical treatment for focal (one- to two-level) lumbar spinal stenosis compared with total joint arthroplasty for osteoarthritis.

Background Context: The results of single-center studies have shown that surgical intervention for lumbar spinal stenosis yielded comparable health-related quality of life (HRQoL) improvement to total joint arthroplasty (TJA). Whether these results are generalizable to routine clinical practice in Canada is unknown.

Purpose: The primary purpose of this equivalence study was to compare the relative improvement in physical HRQoL after surgery for focal lumbar spinal stenosis (FLSS) compared with TJA for hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA) across six Canadian centers.