Does prior spine surgery or instrumentation affect surgical outcomes following 3-column osteotomy for correction of thoracolumbar deformities?

OBJECTIVE Adult spinal deformity (ASD) develops in the setting of asymmetrical arthritic degeneration, and can also be due to iatrogenic causes, such as prior surgery. Many patients who present with ASD have undergone prior spine surgery with instrumentation. Unfortunately, contemporary studies that evaluate the effect of prior surgery or instrumentation on perioperative outcomes, readmission rates, and need for reoperation are lacking. METHODS All ASD patients who underwent a 3-column osteotomy performed by the senior author at the authors' institution for correction of thoracolumbar spinal deformity between 2006 and 2016 were identified. The authors compared surgical outcomes between primary (first-time) and revision cases. Further subgroup analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of the number of prior surgeries (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 or more) and the presence of spinal instrumentation on outcomes. Multivariate analysis was used to adjust for relevant and significant confounders. RESULTS A total of 300 patients were included; 38.3% of patients were male. The overall perioperative complication rate was 24.7%, and the mean length of hospitalization was 8.2 days. The 90-day readmission rate was 9.0%, and the overall follow-up reoperation rate was 26.7%. There were no significant differences in complication rates (26.6% vs 24.0%, p = 0.645), length of hospitalization (8.7 vs 7.9 days, p = 0.229), readmission rates (11.4% vs 8.1%, p = 0.387), or reoperation rates (26.6% vs 26.7%, p = 0.984) between primary and revision cases. There was no significant difference in wound complications (infections/dehiscence) requiring reoperation (5.1% vs 6.3%, p = 0.683). Subgroup analysis conducted to evaluate the effect of the number of prior spinal surgeries or the presence of spinal instrumentation did not reveal significant differences for the aforementioned surgical outcomes. In adjusted multivariate analysis, there were no significant associations between history of prior surgery (number of prior surgeries and prior instrumentation) and all of the surgical outcomes of interest. CONCLUSIONS The findings from this study suggest that patients who have undergone prior spine surgery with or without instrumentation are not at increased risk for perioperative complications, need for readmission, or reoperation following 3-column osteotomy of the thoracolumbar spine.