Trends in resource utilization and rate of cervical disc arthroplasty and anterior cervical discectomy and fusion throughout the United States from 2006 to 2013.

BACKGROUND CONTEXT

The typically accepted surgical procedure for cervical disc pathology has been the anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF), although recent trials have demonstrated equivalent or improved outcomes with cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA). Trends for these two procedures regarding utilization, revision procedures, and other demographic information have not been sufficiently explored.

PURPOSE

The present study aims to provide data regarding ACDF and CDA from 2006 to 2013 in the United States.

DESIGN

The present study is a retrospective national database analysis.

PATIENT SAMPLE

The present study included 20% sample of discharges from US hospitals, which is weighted to provide national estimates.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Functional measures such as national incidence, hospital costs, length of stay (LOS), routine discharge, revision burden, and patient characteristics were used in the present study.

METHODS

Patients from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database who underwent primary ACDF, revision ACDF, primary CDA, and revision CDA from 2006 to 2013 were included. Demographic and economic data for the procedures' respective International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes were collected.

RESULTS

A total of 1,059,403 ACDF and 13,099 CDA surgeries were performed in the United States from 2006 to 2013. The annual number of ACDF increased by 5.7% nonlinearly from 120,617 in 2006 to 127,500 in 2013 (mean per year 132,425; range 120,617-147,966); CDA increased by 190% nonlinearly from 540 in 2006 to 1,565 in 2013 (mean per year 1,637; range 540-2,381). Cervical disc arthroplasty patients were younger and had more private or "other" insurance, including worker's compensation (p<.0001). Mean LOS was longer for ACDF (ACDF 2.3 days vs. CDA 1.5; p<.0001). Routine discharge was higher in the CDA group (CDA 96% vs. ACDF 89%; p-value<.0001). The mean hospital-related cost was more expensive for ACDF (ACDF $16,178 vs. CDA $13,197; p-value=.0007). Cervical disc arthroplasty mean revision burden, defined as the ratio of revision procedures to the sum of primary and revision procedures, was greater (CDA 5.9% vs. ACDF 2.3%, p-value=.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Nationally approximately 132,000 ACDFs are done each year compared with only 1,600 CDAs. The number of ACDF surgeries performed far outpaces CDA by a ratio of 81:1 in the United States without a clear direction in the trend for utilization given recent fluctuations. Cervical disc arthroplasty revision burden was more than double compared with the ACDF revision burden (5.9% vs. 2.3%), which was not accounted for by patient baseline demographics. The etiologies of these findings are likely multifactorial and require further research.