BACKGROUND

Postoperative wound complications pose a challenge to patients undergoing complex spine surgery. Long-term sequelae can be devastating including decreased quality of life, meningitis, prolonged hospital stay, and need for reoperation. Among high-risk patients, postoperative wound complications have been shown to approach 40% in the literature. The aim of this study was to identify predictive factors for postoperative complications following soft-tissue reconstruction after high-risk spine surgery with the hypothesis that it would result in significantly fewer postoperative wound complications.

METHODS

A retrospective review of 67 consecutive spine operations at an academic, tertiary care center was performed, evaluating outcomes with a single plastic surgeon in conjunction with the spine surgery team. Data regarding patient demographics, perioperative risk variables, flap type, location of defect, and postoperative outcomes were obtained through retrospective chart review. Complications included soft-tissue complications and a number of reoperations. A bivariate analysis was used to identify predictors of postoperative complication. These data were compared to literature-reported averages.

RESULTS

A total of 67 consecutive spinal reconstructive operations were included with a mean follow-up of 11.8 months. Thirty-seven patients (55.2%) underwent immediate reconstruction at the time of the index operation, and 30 (44.8%) underwent delayed reconstruction for secondary wound healing problems following the index operation (in which plastic surgery was not involved). The majority of both immediate (95%, n = 35) and delayed (100%, n = 30) patients was defined as high risk based on literature standards. Patients in this series demonstrated a 7.5% complication rate, compared to 18.7% complication rate in the literature. We did not find a difference between major wound complications in the immediate (8.1%) or delayed (6.7%) reconstructive setting ( > 0.99). There were no specific variables identified that predicted postoperative complications.

CONCLUSION

This study illustrates a postoperative complication rate of 7.5% among patients undergoing paraspinous or locoregional muscle flap closure by plastic surgery, which is significantly lower than that reported in contemporary literature for these high-risk patients.