COVID Safety In Spine Surgery Quick Reference Guide

Nitin Khanna, MD Complication Rates

2018– 2019–

241 surgical cases 230 surgical cases

Infection rate <0.5% Infection Rate <0.5%

Take back to surgery <30 days <1.4% Take back to surgery <30 days <1.0%

Recently I gave a webinar attended by worker’s compensation nurse case managers and adjusters on “Safety in Spine Surgery During the Covid Era.” There are many important COVID and safety issues that are, and will continue to, impact Worker’s Comp case management.

A few highlights from the talk are below, including important statistics to serve as spine care decision making tools. 

  • Revision surgeries are more challenging.

  • Get it right the first time.

  • Ask the surgeon for their infection and return to surgery with 30 day data! I don’t know or its pretty low – not an ideal answer!

  • Previous spine surgery can still be treated with minimally invasive outpatient techniques that lead to a decreased length of claim and increased patient satisfaction!

  • Always go with the smaller surgical intervention– Decompressions are typically adequate as opposed to fusion

  • 2017 Khanna Data – 90+% of decompressions did not require future fusion!

  • Multilevel fusion are almost never indicated other than for fractures in WC patients–stick with 1O2 level fusions

If you are a member of the IWICI, you can sign in to listen to the entire presentation on the website.

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