Cervical corpectomy: complications and outcomes

Previously, information on cervical corpectomy complication rates has been obtained from retrospective analysis of single-institution data. The aim of this study was to report 30-day mortality and complication rates after cervical corpectomy using multicenter prospective data from the Veterans Affairs National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database.

The National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database was used to identify 1560 patients who underwent cervical corpectomy in United States Veterans Affairs hospitals from 1997 to 2006. Multivariate analysis was performed to analyze the effects of patient and hospital characteristics on morbidity and mortality rates.

A total of 1560 patients underwent corpectomy, with an overall in-hospital mortality rate of 1.6%, a complication rate of 18.4%, and a mean length of stay of 6 days. Multivariate analysis identified age older than 80 years (odds ratio [OR], 21.24), history of Type 1 diabetes (OR, 2.36), American Society of Anesthesiologists class greater than 3 (OR, 6.93), and dependent functional status (OR, 3.17) as the most significant preoperative predictors of complications. Three or more corpectomy levels (OR, 2.46) and operative duration longer than 6 hours (OR, 3.45) were also found to be significant predictors of postoperative complications. Patients who underwent 3 or more levels of corpectomy had a return-to-operating room rate of 17.9% and a graft/instrumentation failure rate of 5.4% compared with those who underwent single-level corpectomy, who had rates of 6.2 and 1.87%, respectively. Patients who were returned to the operating room had significantly higher mortality rates (7.0 versus 1.2%) and accounted for 39.9% of the total number of complications. Multivariate analysis identified age, American Society of Anesthesiologists class, history of disseminated cancer, and diabetes as the most significant predictors of mortality. Patients with Type 1 diabetes had 4-fold higher mortality rates compared with patients with no history of diabetes or diet-controlled diabetes.

We have analyzed the morbidity and mortality data on the largest series of corpectomy reported to date. We have demonstrated the impact of age, American Society of Anesthesiologists class, and number of operated levels on complication rates. Type 1 diabetes was established as a strong risk factor for 30-day mortality after cervical corpectomy.