Association of tranexamic acid with decreased blood loss in patients undergoing laminectomy and fusion with posterior instrumentation: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE Tranexamic acid (TXA) is an antifibrinolytic agent associated with reduced blood loss and mortality in a wide range of procedures, including spine surgery, traumatic brain injury, and craniosynostosis. Despite this wide use, the safety and efficacy of TXA in spine surgery has been considered controversial due to a relative scarcity of literature and lack of statistical power in reported studies. However, if TXA can be shown to reduce blood loss in laminectomy with fusion and posterior instrumentation, more surgeons may include it in their armamentarium. The authors aimed to conduct an up-to-date systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy of TXA in reducing blood loss in laminectomy and fusion with posterior instrumentation. METHODS A systematic review and meta-analysis, abiding by PRISMA guidelines, was performed by searching the databases of PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane. These platforms were queried for all studies reporting the use of TXA in laminectomy and fusion with posterior instrumentation. Variables retrieved included patient demographics, surgical indications, involved spinal levels, type of laminectomy performed, TXA administration dose, TXA route of administration, operative duration, blood loss, blood transfusion rate, postoperative hemoglobin level, and perioperative complications. Heterogeneity across studies was evaluated using a chi-square test, Cochran’s Q test, and I2 test performed with R statistical programming software. RESULTS A total of 7 articles were included in the qualitative study, while 6 articles featuring 411 patients underwent statistical analysis. The most common route of administration for TXA was intravenous with 15 mg/kg administered preoperatively. After the beginning of surgery, TXA administration patterns were varied among studies. Blood transfusions were increased in non-TXA cohorts compared to TXA cohorts. Patients administered TXA demonstrated a significant reduction in blood loss (mean difference −218.44 mL; 95% CI −379.34 to −57.53; p = 0.018). TXA administration was not associated with statistically significant reductions in operative durations. There were no adverse events reported in either the TXA or non-TXA patient cohorts. CONCLUSIONS TXA can significantly reduce perioperative blood loss in cervical, thoracic, and lumbar laminectomy and fusion procedures, while demonstrating a minimal complication profile.

Antibiotic-Loaded Hydrogel Coating for the Prevention of Local Infection after Vertebral Surgery: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis

Objectives: To preliminarily assess the effectiveness of a highly viscous antibiotic-loaded hydrogel used as a coating for the prevention of superficial and deep Surgical Site Infections (SSIs) after laminectomy and fusion in instrumented vertebral surgery. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort analysis on 73 consecutive patients who underwent surgery from June 2018 to December 2019 for degenerative spinal disorders (DSD) or traumatic fractures with segmental instability. Patients received the antibiotic-loaded hydrogel over the implants perioperatively and were observed postoperatively for 12 months. Results: Postoperative evaluations showed no adverse events in the study population. None of the patients reported significant pain or functional limitation after surgery. Post-surgically, computed tomography scans confirmed the correct positioning of instruments. At 12 months follow-up, no infection was recorded in the overall population. Conclusion: This retrospective investigation highlights the importance of adopting measures to prevent SSIs in instrumented vertebral surgery. The intraoperative local use of an antibiotic-loaded hydrogel, complementary to systemic antibiotic therapy, appears to minimize the risk of superficial and deep infection.

Prediction of the risk of C5 palsy after posterior laminectomy and fusion with cervical myelopathy using a support vector machine: an analysis of 184 consecutive patients

Background This study aimed to predict C5 palsy (C5P) after posterior laminectomy and fusion (PLF) with cervical myelopathy (CM) from routinely available variables using a support vector machine (SVM) method. Methods We conducted a retrospective investigation based on 184 consecutive patients with CM after PLF, and data were collected from March 2013 to December 2019. Clinical and imaging variables were obtained and imported into univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses to identify risk factors for C5P. According to published reports and clinical experience, a series of variables was selected to develop an SVM machine learning model to predict C5P. The accuracy (ACC), area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), and confusion matrices were used to evaluate the performance of the prediction model. Results Among the 184 consecutive patients, C5P occurred in 26 patients (14.13%). Multivariate analyses demonstrated the following 4 independent factors associated with C5P: abnormal electromyogram (odds ratio [OR] = 7.861), JOA recovery rate (OR = 1.412), modified Pavlov ratio (OR = 0.009), and presence of C4–C5 foraminal stenosis (OR = 15.492). The SVM model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.923 and an ACC of 0.918. Additionally, the confusion matrix showed the classification results of the discriminant analysis. Conclusions The designed SVM model presented satisfactory performance in predicting C5P from routinely available variables. However, future external validation is needed.