Early clinical outcomes and medical complications following long segment fusion for adult spinal deformity with and without three column osteotomy.

Background: Surgical treatment of adult spinal deformity (ASD) commonly involves long-segment fusion with or without three column osteotomies (3CO) to provide satisfactory correction of sagittal and coronal balance. While some clinical studies have implicated 3CO as a driver of high surgical complication rates, these prior investigations are limited by small sample size. Herein, we compare early outcomes and adverse events in patients undergoing long segment posterior spinal fusion for ASD with and without 3CO.

Methods: A multicenter administrative database was queried for patients undergoing elective posterior spinal fusion for ASD. Patients were stratified based upon long segment fusion with and without 3CO. Preoperative patient demographics, procedural characteristics, hospitalization events, and postoperative complication rates were evaluated. Student's -test and Fisher's exact test were utilized where appropriate to compare differences between the two groups for continuous and categorical variables.

Results: 340 cases met the inclusion criteria, of which 156 involved 3CO. Patients who required 3CO had a lower rate of preoperative diabetes (22.3 % vs 10.3 %,  = 0.003), higher rates of non-home discharge (26.2 % vs 57.1 %,  < 0.001), longer operation time (245.62 ± 9.45 vs. 434.40 ± 11.65,  < 0.001), and longer length of stay (4.17 ± 0.66 vs. 7.76 ± 0.83,  < 0.001). In terms of complications, 3CO patients had higher rates of deep surgical site infection (0 % vs 3.2 %,  = 0.02), reintubation (0 % vs 4.5 %,  = 0.004), inability to wean off ventilator (0 % vs 2.6 %,  = 0.04), and perioperative blood transfusion (20.1 % vs 76.3 %,  < 0.001).

Conclusions: In this retrospective analysis, posterior 3CO was frequently undertaken but associated with higher risk for postoperative adverse events following spinal deformity correction.