Article
Advantages and risks of wound drains in tumor spine surgery: A multicenter surveillance study of 10,029 patients from the German Spine Registry (DWG-Register)
Search Medline for
Authors
-
Sebastian Walter
- Universitätsklinikum Köln, Köln, Germany
-
Kourosh Zarghooni
- Universitätsklinikum Köln, Köln, Germany
-
Maximilian Lenz
- Universitätsklinikum Köln, Köln, Germany
-
Peter Knöll
- Universitätsklinikum Köln, Köln, Germany
| Published: | October 23, 2023 |
|---|
Outline
Text
Objectives: There is an ongoing debate whether a surgical drain is beneficial to prevent local accumulation of hematoma and to reduce the rate of wound infections, and neurological deficits.
Methods: Data from the German Spine Society (DWG) registry were filtered for surgically treated spine tumor cases between 2017 and 2021. Cases were categorized into such with (Group I) and without (Group II) placement of a surgical drain. Subgroups were compared for demographic data, type of surgery, experience of the surgeon and postoperative surgical complications.
Results and conclusion: 10,029 cases were included into final analysis (Group I: 3,007; Group II: 7,022). There was no significant difference between both groups regarding age or gender distribution. Average morbidity of patients was significantly elevated in Group I (p < 0.05) and the rates of invasive surgery were significantly increased in this group (p < 0.001). Overall complication rates were reported with 12.0% (Group I) and 8.5% (Group II).There were significantly more epidural hematoma (p < 0.001) and motor dysfunction (p = 0.049) as well as deep wound infections (p < 0.001) in Group I.
A surgical drain cannot prevent epidural hematoma.
