Lumbar fusion during the COVID-19 pandemic: greater rates of morbidity and longer procedures

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has altered the standard of care for spine surgery in many ways. However, there is a lack of literature evaluating the potential changes in surgical outcomes and perioperative factors for spine procedures performed during the pandemic. In particular, no large database study evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on spine surgery outcomes has yet been published. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on perioperative factors and postoperative outcomes of lumbar fusion procedures. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study utilized the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) database, which was queried for all adult patients who underwent primary lumbar fusion in 2019 and 2020. Patients were grouped into cohorts based on 2019 (pre-pandemic) or 2020 (intra-pandemic) operation year. Differences in 30-day readmission, reoperation, and morbidity rates were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression. Differences in total relative value units (RVUs), RVUs per minute, and total operation time were evaluated using quantile (median) regression. Odds ratios (OR) for length of stay were estimated via negative binomial regression. RESULTS: A total of 27,446 patients were included in the analysis (12,473 cases in 2020). Unadjusted comparisons of outcomes revealed that lumbar fusions performed in 2020 were associated with higher rates of morbidity, pneumonia, bleeding transfusions, deep venous thrombosis (DVT), and sepsis. 2020 operation year was also associated with longer length of hospital stay, less frequent non-home discharge, higher total RVUs, and higher RVUs per minute. After adjusting for baseline differences in regression analyses, the differences in bleeding transfusions, length of stay, and RVUs per minute were no longer statistically significant. However, operation year 2020 independently predicted morbidity, pneumonia, DVT, and sepsis. In terms of perioperative variables, operation year 2020 predicted greater operative time, non-home discharge, and total RVUs. CONCLUSIONS: Lumbar fusion procedures performed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with poorer outcomes, including higher rates of morbidity, pneumonia, DVT, and sepsis. In addition, surgeries performed in 2020 were associated with longer operative times and less frequent non-home discharge disposition.