Abstract
Objective: To analyse the incidence and gravity of reported complications that arise in spinal surgery and assess the comparative safety, or otherwise, of Endoscopic Laser Foraminoplasty.
Design: Prospective independently analysed study of complications arising during the six weeks following Endoscopic Laser Foraminoplasty was correlated and compared to a meta-analysis of reported data on complications in conventional spinal surgery.
Subjects: Nine hundred and fifty-eight procedures performed on 716 patients
Outcome measures: Occurrence of complications.
Results: The cohort integrity of operative and review records at six weeks after surgery was 100%. Twenty four complications occurred in 23 patients: nine cases of discitis (one infective) (0.9%), one dural tear (0.1%), one deep wound infection (0.1%), two patients suffered a foot drop (one transient) (0.2%), one myocardial infarction (0.1%), one erectile dysfunction (0.1%) and one post operative panic attacks (0.1%). MRI later demonstrated eight residual disc herniations (0.8%). The overall surgical complication rate was 1.6%. Meta-analysis of conventional spinal surgery reported overall complication rates for fusion (11.8%), decompression (7.6%), discectomy (6.0%) and chemonucleolysis (9.6%).
Conclusions: The complication rate of Endoscopic Laser Foraminoplasty is significantly lower than that reported following conventional spinal surgery (P < 0.01).
Abstracts prepared by Mr. A. J. Stirling, FRCS, and Miss A. Weaver. Correspondence should be addressed to Miss A. Weaver at the Research and Teaching Centre, Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Northfield, Birmingham, B31 2AP, UK
BritSpine 2002, the second combined meeting of the British Association of Spinal Surgeons, the British Cervical Spine Society, The British Scoliosis Society and the Society for Back Pain Research, took place at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham UK between 27th February and 1st March 2002. The following presentations and posters were given and displayed.
