Perception of complications by spine surgeons

Area of Science:

• Neurosurgery
• Orthopedic Surgery
• Spinal Surgery

Background:

• Perception of surgical complications varies by surgeon, institution, and specialty.
• Analysis of geographic distribution and severity of frequent spinal surgery complications.
• Assessment of differing spine surgeon perceptions of postoperative complications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the geographic distribution of spinal surgery complication types and severities.
• To assess how spine surgeons' perceptions of postoperative complications differ.
• To compare complication perception between Latin American (LA) and North American (NA) surgeons.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study utilizing a developed questionnaire on surgeon perceptions of spinal surgery complications.
• Survey distributed to AOSpine Latin America members (January-March 2017).
• Analysis of variables including specialty, experience, country, and classification of complications; comparison with North American (NA) responses.

Main Results:

• 708 questionnaires answered; 58.2% orthopedic surgeons, 45.6% with >10 years experience.
• Consensus on 4 of 11 scenarios (>82.5% agreement); tendency toward consensus in 45.4% of cases.
• Similar perception of complications between LA (85%) and NA (80%) cohorts; variation noted within LA data.

Conclusions:

• Significant consensus observed in most complication perception scenarios for both LA and NA cohorts.
• Variation in responses to specific clinical scenarios noted within the Latin America data.
• Highlights the need for further investigation into regional differences in surgical complication perception.