A potentially devastating complication after operative spinal procedures is postoperative spinal wound infection. Despite the utilization of perioperative prophylactic antibiotics in recent years and improvements in surgical technique and postoperative care, wound infection continues to compromise patients’ outcome after spinal surgery. The patients with a spinal wound infection have longer hospital lengths of stay, higher mortality, and higher re-operation rates.
The reported incidence of post-operative spinal infection has varied widely from 0.7% to 16%.The main reason for this wide range is that different types of intervention on the spine have different risks for postoperative infection. These studies have reported on heterogeneous patients populations in which the invasiveness of each type of procedure, for instance, was very different. Risk factors Medical conditions The most…
