A retrospective analysis of outcomes in multiple revision surgeries in lumbar spine

A few decades ago, spine surgery was only performed in a few specialized hospitals. These days, there are a lot of well-trained spine surgeons performing spine procedures. The increase in spine surgical procedures can be attributed to improvements in diagnostic assessment, anesthesiological support and surgical instrumentation 1-5. Spine surgery in general has become a more common, much safer and more efficient procedure. However, it has also become much more complex. Difficult cases that were previously advocated to be non-operatively treated have now started to be treated surgically. This increasing case load has resulted in significant technical improvements, but also brought about a substantial number of devastating failures and more complex revision surgeries. The major challenges for spine surgeons now are to consider patient satisfaction, social costs and the safety of the surgeries themselves. It was shown that 50% to 90% of the patients will substantially benefit from the surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS)6,7 . However, the outcome tends to deteriorate in the long term and some of the patients will suffer a certain period after the operation from return of their previous symptoms8 .In patients having adequate canal decompression due to spinal stenosis, a restenosis of the spinal canal can occur. The number of patients requiring reoperation is likely to increase with time9.

The following study aims to find the amount of cases undergoing multiple revision surgeries, the cause and outcomes of multiple revision surgeries and the complications associated with them.