Perioperative Neurological Complications Following Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion: Clinical Impact on 317,789 Patients from the National Inpatient Sample.

BACKGROUND: Perioperative neurologic complication after an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is uncommon but may have significant clinical consequences. OBJECTIVE: We aim to estimate the incidence of perioperative neurologic complications, identify their risk factors, and evaluate their impact on morbidity and mortality after ACDF. METHODS: ACDF cases (n = 317,789 patients) were extracted from the National Inpatient Sample between 1999 and 2011. Based on their Elixhauser-van Walraven score (VWR), patients were classified as low (VWR < 5), moderate (5-14), or high risk (>14) for surgery. The primary outcome was perioperative neurologic complications. Secondary outcomes included morbidity (hospital length of stay >14 days or discharge disposition to a location other than home) and in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: The rate of perioperative neurologic complications, morbidity, and mortality after ACDF was 0.4%, 8.4%, and 0.1%, respectively. Perioperative neurologic complications were highly associated with in-house morbidity (odds ratio [OR], 3.7 [3.1-4.4]) and mortality (OR, 8.0 [4.1-15.5]). The strongest predictors for perioperative neurologic complications were moderate- (OR, 3.1 [2.6-3.7]) and high-risk VWR (OR, 5.4 [3.3-8.9]), postoperative hematoma/seroma formation (OR, 5.4 [3.9-7.4]), and obesity (OR, 1.9 [1.6-2.3]). The rate of perioperative neurologic complications increased from 0.2% to 0.7% from 1999 to 2011, which was temporally associated with the rise in moderate- (P = 0.002) and high-risk patients (P = 0.001) undergoing ACDF. CONCLUSIONS: Perioperative neurologic complications are independent predictors of in-hospital morbidity and mortality after ACDF. Both morbidity and perioperative neurologic complications have increased between 1999 and 2011, which may be due, in part, to increasing numbers of moderate- and high-risk patients undergoing ACDF.