Impact of perioperative complications on clinical outcome scores in lumbar fusion surgery.

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.