Surgery for Metastatic Spinal Disease in Octogenarians and Above: Analysis of 78 Patients

Ibrahim Hussain, Benjamin R. Hartley, Lily McLaughlin, Anne S. Reiner, Ilya Laufer, Mark H. Bilsky, Ori Barzilai*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Study Design: Retrospective Cohort Study. Objective: Octogenarians living with spinal metastases are a challenging population to treat. Our objective was to identify the rate, types, management, and predictors of complications and survival in octogenarians following surgery for spinal metastases. Methods: A retrospective review of a prospectively collected cohort of patients aged 80 years or older who underwent surgery for metastatic spinal tumor treatment between 2008 and 2019 were included. Demographic, intraoperative, complications, and postoperative follow-up data was collected. Cox proportional hazards regression and logistic regression were used to associate variables with overall survival and postoperative complications, respectively. Results: 78 patients (mean 83.6 years) met inclusion criteria. Average operative time and blood loss were 157 minutes and 615 mL, respectively. The median length of stay was 7 days. The overall complication rate was 31% (N = 24), with 21% considered major and 7% considered life-threatening or fatal. Blood loss was significantly associated with postoperative complications (OR = 1.002; P = 0.02) and mortality (HR = 1.0007; P = 0.04). Significant associations of increased risk of death were also noted with surgeries with decompression, and cervical/cervicothoracic index level of disease. For deceased patients, median time to death was 4.5 months. For living patients, median follow-up was 14.5 months. The Kaplan-Meier based median overall survival for the cohort was 11.6 months (95% CI: 6.2-19.1). Conclusions: In octogenarians undergoing surgery with instrumentation for spinal metastases, the median overall survival is 11.6 months. There is an increased complication rate, but only 7% are life-threatening or fatal. Patients are at increased risk for complications and mortality particularly when performing decompression with stabilization, with increasing intraoperative blood loss, and with cervical/cervicothoracic tumors.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1481-1489
Number of pages9
JournalGlobal Spine Journal
Volume13
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2023
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Institutes of Health
National Cancer InstituteP30 CA008748

    Keywords

    • elderly
    • octogenarian
    • percutaneous stabilization
    • separation surgery
    • spinal metastasis
    • spine tumor

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