Disparities in Rates of Fusions in Lumbar Disc Pathologies

Retrospective cohort study.

To identify disparities in surgical decision making for lumbar disc pathologies based on patient demographics, hospital characteristics, and temporal characteristics of admission.

A retrospective analysis of patients admitted for surgical intervention of disc herniation or degeneration was performed to observe the effect of demographic, hospital, and admission-related factors on the decision to perform an isolated decompression or decompression with single level fusion using the National Inpatient Sample.

Of 84 953 patients with lumbar disc pathologies, 69 975 patients were treated electively, and 14 978 patients were treated nonelectively. Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander patients were less likely to receive a fusion for elective cases compared with White patients (odds ratio [OR] 0.88, P = .004; OR 0.70, P < .001, respectively). In elective cases, privately insured and self-paying patients were less likely to receive a fusion compared with Medicare patients (OR 0.83, P < .001; OR 0.66, P < .001, respectively), while this effect was limited to self-pay patients in nonelective cases (OR 0.44, P < .001). Urban teaching and nonteaching hospitals were less likely to perform fusions compared with rural hospitals in nonelective cases (OR 0.47, P < .001; OR 0.58, P < .001, respectively). Private for-profit hospitals were associated with higher rates of fusion in both elective and nonelective cases (OR 1.16, P = .003; OR 1.94, P < .001).

This study illustrates disparities in the modality of surgical intervention for lumbar disc pathologies in terms of demographics, hospital characteristics, and temporal characteristics of admission. The development of more evidence-based guidelines is warranted to reduce variability seen in treatment regimens for these conditions.