Trends in spinal surgery pre- and post-pandemic in a large metropolitan area

New York City was hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with lockdowns and elective surgery stoppages. Research into lasting trends in spine surgery volume following the COVID-19 pandemic remains scarce. The primary aim was to identify trends in spine surgery volume and secondary aim was to outline trends in patient characteristics during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in this large urban metropolitan area. The Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) database of New York was queried for all adult spine surgery claims from the 5 boroughs of New York City and Westchester County from 2019 to 2023. The principal submitted ICD10 code was used to categorize manually each claim by its associated spinal pathology. There were 26,066 claims in 2019, 20,437 in 2020, 24,829 in 2021, 26,271 claims in 2022, and 30,485 claims in 2023. Total ICD10 diagnoses per claim increased from 9.8 in 2019 to 10.3 in 2023. The proportion of ambulatory claims increased from 36.1% in 2019 to 49.1% in 2023. Length-of-stay averaged 3.23 days in 2019 and fell to 2.80 days by 2023. The percent of patients discharged home rose from 83.5 to 87.0%, with decreases in discharge to skilled nursing facilities (SNF) or rehabilitation. Spine surgery volumes decreased during the pandemic, but in 2022 and 2023 surpassed pre-pandemic numbers. These trends can help guide spine surgeons about ongoing changes in demographics, insurance status, and surgical characteristics, as well as prepare for future pandemics.