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This study aims to estimate real-world clinical practice trends in time to surgery following thoracolumbar spinal cord injury (SCI) in trauma centers across North America over the last decade (2010-2020). A multi-center retrospective observational study was conducted using Trauma Quality Improvement Program data from 2010 to 2020. All surgically treated patients with thoracic and lumbar SCI were included. Descriptive plots and a multivariable Poisson regression model with time to spine surgery as the primary outcome were constructed. This study included 4350 adult patients with complete SCI surgically treated across 449 trauma centers. Within this group, 3978 (91.4%) patients were diagnosed with thoracic SCI and 372 (8.6%) patients were diagnosed with lumbar SCI. The overall mean time to surgery was 31.6 h (±34.1). Early surgery (≤24 h) was performed in 2599 patients (59.7%). An estimated annual reduction of 1.6 h in time to surgery was demonstrated over the study period, starting initially at a mean of 47.6 h (±40.6) in 2010, and reaching a mean of 25.3 h (±30) in 2020. Multivariable Poisson regression adjusting for patient, injury, and institution confounders, demonstrated a significant decrease in time to surgery by 5% per year over the study period (incidence rate ratios [IRR] = 0.95, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.93-0.96). Moreover, in a secondary analysis including 3270 patients with incomplete thoracolumbar SCI, a comparable significant annual reduction in time to surgery was demonstrated (IRR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.91-0.94). This study provides real-world data on practice pattern trends with respect to time to spine surgery following traumatic thoracolumbar SCI. Over the years from 2010 to 2020, we found a significant reduction in time to surgery across trauma centers in North America.

This study aims to quantify the change in time to surgery for treatment of complete traumatic cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) patients in American College of Surgeons accredited trauma centers across North America over the last decade (2010-2020). This multi-center retrospective observational cohort study used data from the Trauma Quality Improvement Program from 2010 to 2020. All surgically treated patients with complete traumatic cervical SCI were included. Primary outcome was time to spine surgery from treating hospital arrival in hours. Both descriptive statistics and a multi-variable Poisson regression model clustering standard of errors by each included trauma center were used to evaluate and quantify the annual change in time to surgical intervention. The study included 6855 complete traumatic cervical SCI patients managed across 484 trauma centers in North America. Median time to spine surgery was 14.6 h. A total of 4618 patients (67.3%) underwent surgical intervention within 24 h from hospital arrival. From 2010 to 2020, median time to surgery decreased by an average 0.6 h (±0.15) per year. A multi-variable adjusted model for time to surgery demonstrated a significant downward annual reduction of 5% in time to surgery between the years 2010 and 2020 (Incidence rate ratio = 0.95; 95% Confidence Interval: 0.93-0.96). This study provides compelling real-world based quantification of the change in time to surgical intervention following traumatic cervical SCI. A significant decreasing annual trend pertaining to surgical timing across trauma centers in North America over the past decade was demonstrated.

Background: Healthcare inequities for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) represent a major priority area for trauma quality improvement. We hypothesized a relationship between health insurance status and timing of withdrawal of life sustaining treatment (WLST) for adults with severe TBI., Methods: This multicenter retrospective observational cohort study utilized data collected between 2017 and 2020. We identified adult (age ≥ 16) patients with isolated severe TBI admitted participating Trauma Quality Improvement Program centers. We determined the relationship between insurance status (public, private, and uninsured) and the timing of WLST using a competing risk survival analysis framework adjusting for baseline, clinical, injury and trauma center characteristics. Multivariable cause-specific Cox regressions were used to compute adjusted hazard ratios (HR) reflecting timing of WLST, accounting for mortality events. We also quantified the between-center residual variability in WLST using the median odds ratio (MOR) and measured insurance status association with access to rehabilitation at discharge., Results: We identified 42,111 adults with isolated severe TBI treated across 509 trauma centers across North America. There were 10,771 (25.6%) WLST events in the cohort and a higher unadjusted incidence of WLST events was evident in public insurance patients compared to private or uninsured groups. After adjustment, WLST occurred earlier for publicly insured (HR 1.07, 95% CI 1.02-1.12) and uninsured patients (HR 1.29, 95% CI 1.18-1.41) compared to privately insured patients. Access to rehabilitation was lower for both publicly insured and uninsured patients compared to patients with private insurance. Accounting for case-mix, the MOR was 1.49 (95% CI 1.43-1.55), reflecting significant residual between-center variation in WLST decision-making., Conclusions: Our findings highlight the presence of disparate WLST practices independently associated with health insurance status. Additionally, these results emphasize between-center variability in WLST, persisting despite adjustments for measurable patient and trauma center characteristics., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Importance: Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes drastic changes to an individual's physical health that may be associated with the ability to work., Objective: To estimate the association of SCI with individual earnings and employment status using national administrative health databases linked to income tax data., Design, Setting, and Participants: This was a retrospective, national, population-based cohort study of adults who were hospitalized with cervical SCI in Canada between January 2005 and December 2017. All acute care hospitalizations for SCI of adults ages 18 to 64 years were included. A comparison group was constructed by sampling from individuals in the injured cohort. Fiscal information from their preinjury years was used for comparison. The injured cohort was matched with the comparison group based on age, sex, marital status, province of residence, self-employment status, earnings, and employment status in the year prior to injury. Data were analyzed from August 2022 to January 2023., Main Outcomes and Measures: The first outcome was the change in individual annual earnings up to 5 years after injury. The change in mean yearly earnings was assessed using a linear mixed-effects differences-in-differences regression. Income values are reported in 2022 Canadian dollars (CAD $1.00 = US $0.73). The second outcome was the change in employment status up to 5 years after injury. A multivariable probit regression model was used to compare proportions of individuals employed among those who had experienced SCI and the paired comparison group of participants., Results: A total of 1630 patients with SCI (mean [SD] age, 47 [13] years; 1304 male [80.0%]) were matched to patients in a preinjury comparison group (resampled from the same 1630 patients in the SCI group). The mean (SD) of preinjury wage earnings was CAD $46 000 ($48 252). The annual decline in individual earnings was CAD $20 275 (95% CI, -$24 455 to -$16 095) in the first year after injury and CAD $20 348 (95% CI, -$24 710 to -$15 985) in the fifth year after injury. At 5 years after injury, 52% of individuals who had an injury were working compared with 79% individuals in the preinjury comparison group. SCI survivors had a decrease in employment of 17.1 percentage points (95% CI, 14.5 to 19.7 percentage points) in the first year after injury and 17.8 percentage points (14.5 to 21.1 percentage points) in the fifth year after injury., Conclusions and Relevance: In this study, SCI was associated with a decline in earnings and employment up to 5 years after injury for adults aged 18 to 64 years in Canada.

Background: Spinal metastases are a significant complication of advanced cancer. In this study, we assess temporal trends in the incidence and timing of spinal metastases and examine underlying patient demographics and primary cancer associations., Methods: In this population-based retrospective cohort study, health data from 2007 to 2019 in Ontario, Canada were analyzed ( n  = 37, 375 patients identified with spine metastases). Primary outcomes were annual incidence of spinal metastasis, and time to metastasis after primary diagnosis., Results: The age-standardized incidence of spinal metastases increased from 229 to 302 cases per million over the 13-year study period. The average annual percent change (AAPC) in incidence was 2.2% (95% CI: 1.4% to 3.0%) with patients aged ≥85 years demonstrating the largest increase (AAPC 5.2%; 95% CI: 2.3% to 8.3%). Lung cancer had the greatest annual incidence, while prostate cancer had the greatest increase in annual incidence (AAPC 6.5; 95% CI: 4.1% to 9.0%). Lung cancer patients were found to have the highest risk of spine metastasis with 10.3% (95% CI: 10.1% to 10.5%) of patients being diagnosed at 10 years. Gastrointestinal cancer patients were found to have the lowest risk of spine metastasis with 1.0% (95% CI: 0.9% to 1.0%) of patients being diagnosed at 10 years., Conclusions: The incidence of spinal metastases has increased in recent years, particularly among older patients. The incidence and timing vary substantially among different primary cancer types. These findings contribute to the understanding of disease trends and emphasize a growing population of patients who require subspecialty care., Competing Interests: No authors reported conflicts of interest related to this study. Outside of this study, AS has been a consultant for Varian, Elekta (Gamma Knife Icon), BrainLAB, Merck, Abbvie, and Roche; Vice President of the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society (ISRS); Co-Chair of the AO Spine Knowledge Forum Tumor; received honorarium for past educational seminars for AstraZeneca, Elekta AB, Varian, BrainLAB, Accuray, Seagen Inc.; research grant with Elekta AB, Varian, Seagen Inc., BrainLAB; and travel accommodations/expenses with Elekta, Varian, and BrainLAB. AS also belongs to the Elekta MR Linac Research Consortium and is a Clinical Steering Committee Member, and chairs the Elekta Oligometastases Group and the Elekta Gamma Knife Icon Group outside of this study. ND reported personal feeds from Stryker, Medtronic, Cerapedics, and Baxter outside the submitted work. ND is a stockholder of Medtronic and received fellowship support from Medtronic, AOSpine, and JJ/Synthes outside the submitted work. CDW reported grants from Cerapedics and personal fees from Stryker outside the submitted work. DAR reported research support from a Canada Research Chair in Medical Decision Sciences, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the PSI Foundation of Ontario, and the Kimel-Schatzky Traumatic Brain Injury Research Fund outside the submitted work. JRW reported personal fees from Stryker Canada outside the submitted work., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press, the Society for Neuro-Oncology and the European Association of Neuro-Oncology.)

Purpose To develop an automated triage tool to predict neurosurgical intervention for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Materials and Methods A provincial trauma registry was reviewed to retrospectively identify patients with TBI from 2005 to 2022 treated at a specialized Canadian trauma center. Model training, validation, and testing were performed using head CT scans with binary reference standard patient-level labels corresponding to whether the patient received neurosurgical intervention. Performance and accuracy of the model, the Automated Surgical Intervention Support Tool for TBI (ASIST-TBI), were also assessed using a held-out consecutive test set of all patients with TBI presenting to the center between March 2021 and September 2022. Results Head CT scans from 2806 patients with TBI (mean age, 57 years ± 22 [SD]; 1955 [70%] men) were acquired between 2005 and 2021 and used for training, validation, and testing. Consecutive scans from an additional 612 patients (mean age, 61 years ± 22; 443 [72%] men) were used to assess the performance of ASIST-TBI. There was accurate prediction of neurosurgical intervention with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.92 (95% CI: 0.88, 0.94), accuracy of 87% (491 of 562), sensitivity of 87% (196 of 225), and specificity of 88% (295 of 337) on the test dataset. Performance on the held-out test dataset remained robust with an AUC of 0.89 (95% CI: 0.85, 0.91), accuracy of 84% (517 of 612), sensitivity of 85% (199 of 235), and specificity of 84% (318 of 377). Conclusion A novel deep learning model was developed that could accurately predict the requirement for neurosurgical intervention using acute TBI CT scans. Keywords: CT, Brain/Brain Stem, Surgery, Trauma, Prognosis, Classification, Application Domain, Traumatic Brain Injury, Triage, Machine Learning, Decision Support Supplemental material is available for this article. © RSNA, 2024 See also commentary by Haller in this issue.

In spite of an exponential increase in the volume of medical data produced globally, much of these data are inaccessible to those who might best use them to develop improved health care solutions through the application of advanced analytics such as artificial intelligence. Data liberation and crowdsourcing represent two distinct but interrelated approaches to bridging existing data silos and accelerating the pace of innovation internationally. In this article, we examine these concepts in the context of medical artificial intelligence research, summarizing their potential benefits, identifying potential pitfalls, and ultimately making a case for their expanded use going forward. A practical example of a crowdsourced competition using an international medical imaging dataset is provided. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Data Liberation, Crowdsourcing © RSNA, 2023.

Background: Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to profound neurologic sequelae, and the provision of life-supporting treatment serves great importance among this patient population. The decision for withdrawal of life-supporting treatment (WLST) in complete traumatic SCI is complex with the lack of guidelines and limited understanding of practice patterns. We aimed to evaluate the individual and contextual factors associated with the decision for WLST and assess between-center differences in practice patterns across North American trauma centers for patients with complete cervical SCI., Methods: This retrospective multicenter observational cohort study utilized data derived from the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Program database between 2017 and 2020. The study included adult patients (> 16 years) with complete cervical SCI. We constructed a multilevel mixed effect logistic regression model to adjust for patient, injury and hospital factors influencing WLST. Factors associated with WLST were estimated through odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Hospital variability was characterized using the median odds ratio. Unexplained residual variability was assessed through the proportional change in variation between models., Results: We identified 5070 patients with complete cervical SCI treated across 477 hospitals, of which 960 (18.9%) had WLST. Patient-level factors associated with significantly increased likelihood of WLST were advanced age, male sex, white race, prior dementia, low presenting Glasgow Coma Scale score, having a pre-hospital cardiac arrest, SCI level of C3 or above, and concurrent severe injury to the head or thorax. Patient-level factors associated with significantly decreased likelihood of WLST included being racially Black or Asian. There was significant variability across hospitals in the likelihood for WLST while accounting for case-mix, hospital size, and teaching status (MOR 1.51 95% CI 1.22-1.75)., Conclusions: A notable proportion of patients with complete cervical SCI undergo WLST during their in-hospital admission. We have highlighted several factors associated with this decision and identified considerable variability between hospitals. Further work to standardize WLST guidelines may improve equity of care provided to this patient population., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Frailty, as measured by the modified frailty index-5 (mFI-5), and older age are associated with increased mortality in the setting of spinal cord injury (SCI). However, there is limited evidence demonstrating an incremental prognostic value derived from patient mFI-5. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate in-hospital mortality among adult complete cervical SCI patients at participating centers of the Trauma Quality Improvement Program from 2010 to 2018. Logistic regression was used to model in-hospital mortality, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of regression models with age, mFI-5, or age with mFI-5 was used to compare the prognostic value of each model. 4733 patients were eligible. We found that both age (80 y versus 60 y: OR 3.59 95% CI [2.82 4.56], P < 0.001) and mFI-5 (score ≥ 2 versus < 2: OR 1.53 95% CI [1.19 1.97], P < 0.001) had statistically significant associations with in-hospital mortality. There was no significant difference in the AUROC of a model including age and mFI-5 when compared to a model including age without mFI-5 (95% CI Δ AUROC [- 8.72 × 10 -4 0.82], P = 0.199). Both models were superior to a model including mFI-5 without age (95% CI Δ AUROC [0.06 0.09], P < 0.001). Our findings suggest that mFI-5 provides minimal incremental prognostic value over age with respect to in-hospital mortality for patients complete cervical SCI., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Odontoid fractures are increasingly prevalent in older adults and associated with high morbidity and mortality. Optimal management remains controversial. Our study aims to investigate the association between surgical management of odontoid fractures and in-hospital mortality in a multi-center geriatric cohort. We identified patients 65 years or older with C2 odontoid fractures from the Trauma Quality Improvement Program database. The primary study outcome was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes were in-hospital complications and hospital length of stay. Generalized estimating equation models were used to compare outcomes between operative and non-operative cohorts. Among the 13,218 eligible patients, 1100 (8.3%) were treated surgically. The risk of in-hospital mortality did not differ between surgical and non-surgical groups, after patient and hospital-level adjustment (OR: 0.94, 95%CI: 0.55-1.60). The risks of major complications and immobility-related complications were higher in the operative cohort (adjusted OR: 2.12, 95%CI: 1.53-2.94; and OR: 2.24, 95%CI: 1.38-3.63, respectively). Patients undergoing surgery had extended in-hospital length of stay compared to the non-operative group (9 days, IQR: 6-12 days vs. 4 days, IQR: 3-7 days). These findings were supported by secondary analyses that considered between-center differences in rates of surgery. Among geriatric patients with odontoid fractures surgical management was associated with similar in-hospital mortality, but higher in-hospital complication rates compared to non-operative management. Surgical management of geriatric patients with odontoid fractures requires careful patient selection and consideration of pre-existing comorbidities., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Introduction: Spinal hemangiomas are benign vascular tumors that most commonly originate from the osseous structures of the spinal column. Epidural spinal hemangiomas without osseous involvement are uncommon and are classified as pure epidural spinal hemangiomas. Extraosseous spinal epidural cavernous hemangiomas are rarely described and among available reports; most patients present with slowly progressive neurological symptoms. Herein, we present a novel case of acute neurological dysfunction from a pure spinal epidural hemangioma that was managed through surgical resection with good neurological recovery at follow-up., Case Presentation: A 45-year-old previously healthy man presented to the emergency room with sudden inability to ambulate and was found to have bilateral lower extremity weakness. Magnetic resonance imaging of the spine demonstrated an epidural mass extending out of the right T5/6 neural foramen. The mass enhanced heterogeneously, and the preoperative diagnosis favored an atypical schwannoma. The lesion was surgically removed en-bloc through a midline posterior decompression with instrumentation. Histopathologic examination confirmed cavernous hemangioma pathology. Within 6 weeks of the surgical intervention, the patient had regained full sensorimotor function and these effects were durable through long term follow-up., Discussion: Pure spinal epidural hemangiomas are rare and generally have an insidious clinical course. This case report highlights that these uncommon lesions may present with substantial and acute neurological dysfunction requiring urgent neurosurgical intervention. This should prompt clinicians to consider cavernous hemangioma in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with acute neurological deterioration and an epidural spinal tumor., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to International Spinal Cord Society.)

Background: Craniocervical junction and subaxial cervical spinal manifestations of calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease are rarely encountered. The authors presented a severe case of retro-odontoid pseudotumor rupture causing rapid quadriparesis and an acute comatose state with subsequent radiographic and clinical improvement after posterior occipital cervical fusion., Observations: The authors surveyed the literature and outlined multiple described operative management strategies for compressive cervical and craniocervical junction calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease manifestations ranging from neck pain to paresthesia, weakness, myelopathy, quadriparesis, and cranial neuropathies. In this report, radiographic features of cervical and craniocervical junction calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease were explored. Several previously described surgical strategies were compiled, including patient characteristics and outcomes., Lessons: With this case report, the authors presented for the first time an isolated posterior occipital cervical fusion for treatment of a compressive retro-odontoid pseudotumor with rupture into the brainstem. They demonstrated rapid clinical and radiographic resolution after stabilization of cranial cervical junction only 12 weeks postsurgery.

Early surgical intervention to decompress the spinal cord and stabilize the spinal column in patients with acute traumatic thoracolumbar spinal cord injury (TLSCI) may lessen the risk of developing complications and improve outcomes. However, there has yet to be agreement on what constitutes "early" surgery; reported thresholds range from 8 to 72 h. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted an observational cohort study using data from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Trauma Quality Improvement Program (TQIP) from 2010 to 2016. The association between time from hospital arrival to surgical intervention and risk of major complications was assessed using restricted cubic splines. Propensity score matching was then used to assess the association between delayed surgery and risk of complications. Across 354 trauma centers 4108 adult TLSCI patients who underwent surgery were included. Median time-to-surgery was 18.8 h (interquartile range [IQR]: 7.4-40.9 h). The spline model suggests the risk of major complication rises consistently after a 12-h surgical wait-time. After propensity score matching, the odds of major complication were significantly lower for those receiving surgery within 12 h (odds ratio [OR] 0.77, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.64 to 0.94). This was also true for immobility-related complications (OR 0.79, 95% CI: 0.64 to 0.97). Patients in the early group spent 1.5 fewer days in the critical care unit on average (95% CI: -2.09 to -0.88). Although surgery within 12 h may not always be feasible, these data suggest that whenever possible surgeons should strive to reduce the amount of time between hospital arrival and surgical intervention, and health care systems should support this endeavor.

Study Design: Literature Review (Narrative)., Objective: To contextualize AO Spine RECODE-DCM research priority number 5: What is the socio-economic impact of DCM? (The financial impact of living with DCM to the individual, their supporters, and society as a whole)., Methods: In this review, we introduce the methodology of health-economic investigation, including potential techniques and approaches. We summarize the current health-economic evidence within DCM, so far focused on surgical treatment. We also cover the first national estimate, in partnership with Myelopathy.org from the United Kingdom, of the cost of DCM to society. We then demonstrate the significance of this question to advancing care and outcomes in the field., Results: DCM is a common and often disabling condition, with a significant lack of recognition. While evidence demonstrates the cost-effectives of surgery, even among higher income countries, health inequalities exist. Further the prevalent residual disability in myelopathy, despite treatment affects both the individual and society as a whole. A report from the United Kingdom provides the first cost-estimate to their society; an annual cost of ∼£681.6 million per year, but this is likely a significant underestimate., Conclusion: A clear quantification of the impact of DCM is needed to raise the profile of a common and disabling condition. Current evidence suggests this is likely to be globally substantial.

Substantial clinical data support an association between superior neurological outcomes and early (within 24 h) surgical decompression for those with traumatic cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). Despite this, much discussion persists around feasibility and safety of this time threshold, particularly for those with a complete cervical SCI. This study aims to assess clinical practices and the safety profile of early surgery across a large sample of North American trauma centers. Data were derived from the Trauma Quality Improvement Program database from 2010-2016. Adult patients with a complete cervical SCI (American Spinal Injury Association [ASIA] A) who underwent surgery were included. Patients were stratified into those receiving surgery at or before 24 h and those receiving delayed intervention. Risk-adjusted variability in surgical timing across trauma centers was investigated using mixed-effects regression. In-hospital adverse events including death, major complications, and immobility-related complications were compared between groups after propensity score matching. There were 2862 patients from 353 North American trauma centers included; 1760 (61.5%) underwent surgery within 24 h. Case-mix and hospital-level characteristics explained only 6% of the variability in surgical timing both between centers and within centers. No significant differences in adverse events were identified between groups. These findings suggest a relatively large proportion of patients are not receiving surgery within the recommended time frame, despite apparent safety. Moreover, patient and hospital-level characteristics explain little of the variability in time-to-surgery. Further knowledge translation is needed to increase the proportion of patients in whom surgery is performed before the 24-h threshold so patients might reach their greatest potential for neurological recovery.

Background: Differences in physician income by gender have been described in numerous jurisdictions, but few studies have looked at a Canadian cohort with adjustment for confounders. In this study, we aimed to understand differences in fee-for-service payments to men and women physicians in Ontario., Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of all Ontario physicians who submitted claims to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) in 2017. For each physician, we gathered demographic information from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario registry. We compared differences in physician claims between men and women in the entire cohort and within each specialty using multivariable linear regressions, controlling for length of practice, specialty and practice location., Results: We identified a cohort of 30 167 physicians who submitted claims to OHIP in 2017, including 17 992 men and 12 175 women. When controlling for confounding variables in a linear mixed-effects regression model, annual physician claims were $93 930 (95% confidence interval $88 434 to $99 431) higher for men than for women. Women claimed 74% as much as men when adjusting for covariates. This discrepancy was present in nearly all specialty categories. Men claimed more than women throughout their careers, with the greatest gap 10-15 years into practice., Interpretation: We found a gender gap in fee-for-service claims in Ontario, with women claiming less than men overall and in nearly every specialty. Further work is required to understand the root causes of the gender pay gap., Competing Interests: Competing interests: Alana Flexman reports membership on the diversity, equity and inclusion committees of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society and Vancouver Coastal Health. Tara Kiran reports payments from the Ontario Medical Association, the Ontario College of Family Physicians, the Nova Scotia Health Authority, Doctors of BC and the Osgood Hall Law School, outside the submitted work. No other competing interests were declared., (© 2021 CMA Joule Inc. or its licensors.)

There are limited data pertaining to current practices in timing of surgical decompression for acute thoracolumbar spinal cord injury (SCI). We conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate variability in timing between- and within-trauma centers in North America; and to identify patient- and hospital-level factors associated with treatment delay. Adults with acute thoracolumbar SCI who underwent decompressive surgery within five days of injury at participating trauma centers in the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Program were included. Mixed-effects regression with a random intercept for trauma center was used to model the outcome of time to surgical decompression and assess risk-adjusted variability in surgery timeliness across centers. 3,948 patients admitted to 214 TQIP centers were eligible. 28 centers were outliers, with a significantly shorter or longer time to surgery than average. Case-mix and hospital characteristics explained < 1% of between-hospital variability in surgical timing. Moreover, only 7% of surgical timing variability within-centers was explained by case-mix characteristics. The adjusted intraclass correlation coefficient of 12% suggested poor correlation of surgical timing for patients with similar characteristics treated at the same center. These findings support the need for further research into the optimal timing of surgical intervention for thoracolumbar SCI.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) evidence of spinal cord compression plays a central role in the diagnosis of degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM). There is growing recognition that deep learning models may assist in addressing the increasing volume of medical imaging data and provide initial interpretation of images gathered in a primary-care setting. We aimed to develop and validate a deep learning model for detection of cervical spinal cord compression in MRI scans. Patients undergoing surgery for DCM as a part of the AO Spine CSM-NA or CSM-I prospective cohort studies were included in our study. Patients were divided into a training/validation or holdout dataset. Images were labelled by two specialist physicians. We trained a deep convolutional neural network using images from the training/validation dataset and assessed model performance on the holdout dataset. The training/validation cohort included 201 patients with 6588 images and the holdout dataset included 88 patients with 2991 images. On the holdout dataset the deep learning model achieved an overall AUC of 0.94, sensitivity of 0.88, specificity of 0.89, and f1-score of 0.82. This model could improve the efficiency and objectivity of the interpretation of cervical spine MRI scans.

Background: Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is an effective treatment for cervical spondylosis. A limitation of ACDF is the risk of adjacent-segment degeneration (ASD), owing to arthrodesis of a motion segment. Cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) has hence garnered significant attention; yet, compelling evidence of reduction in ASD requiring surgery is lacking. This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to compare long-term longitudinal adjacent-level operation rates with CDA versus ACDF., Methods: An electronic literature search was conducted. Eligible studies were multi-center randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing CDA with ACDF for one- or two-level symptomatic cervical spondylosis. The primary outcome was adjacent-level operation. Index-level reoperation was a secondary outcome. Outcomes were evaluated at 1-year intervals from the index operation to last reported follow-up by random-effects meta-analyses., Results: Eleven RCTs met criteria. For one-level spondylosis, there was no difference in the rate of adjacent-level operation between CDA (2.3%) and ACDF (3.6%) at 2 years. However, a large difference favoring CDA became evident at 5 years and persisted at 7 years (4.3% vs. 10.8%, P<0.001). Significantly fewer patients who underwent CDA required index-level reoperation at all time points out to 7 years (5.2% vs. 12.7%, P<0.001). Similar to one-level operations, there was no significant difference in adjacent-level operations with two-level CDA (1.7%) versus two-level ACDF (3.4%) at 2 years. At 7 years, a significant difference favoring CDA became apparent (5.1% vs. 10.0%, P=0.014). Two-level CDA resulted in fewer index-level reoperations out to 7 years (4.2% vs. 13.5%, P<0.001)., Conclusions: In this meta-analysis, the short-term rate of adjacent-level operation was similar with CDA or ACDF. However, around 5 years, a statistically significant divergence emerged, where the rate of adjacent-level surgery rose steeply for ACDF. Index-level reoperations were less frequent with CDA in both the short- and long-term. These data indicate CDA may have a superior longevity to ACDF with regard to need for subsequent adjacent-level operation., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: The series “Advanced Techniques in Complex Cervical Spine Surgery” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. Dr. Traynelis is a paid consultant for Medtronic, NuVasive, and Thompson Surgical, and receives IP royalties from Medtronic. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2020 Journal of Spine Surgery. All rights reserved.)

Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is the leading cause of spinal cord dysfunction in adults worldwide. DCM encompasses various acquired (age-related) and congenital pathologies related to degeneration of the cervical spinal column, including hypertrophy and/or calcification of the ligaments, intervertebral discs and osseous tissues. These pathologies narrow the spinal canal, leading to chronic spinal cord compression and disability. Owing to the ageing population, rates of DCM are increasing. Expeditious diagnosis and treatment of DCM are needed to avoid permanent disability. Over the past 10 years, advances in basic science and in translational and clinical research have improved our understanding of the pathophysiology of DCM and helped delineate evidence-based practices for diagnosis and treatment. Surgical decompression is recommended for moderate and severe DCM; the best strategy for mild myelopathy remains unclear. Next-generation quantitative microstructural MRI and neurophysiological recordings promise to enable quantification of spinal cord tissue damage and help predict clinical outcomes. Here, we provide a comprehensive, evidence-based review of DCM, including its definition, epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis and differential diagnosis, and non-operative and operative management. With this Review, we aim to equip physicians across broad disciplines with the knowledge necessary to make a timely diagnosis of DCM, recognize the clinical features that influence management and identify when urgent surgical intervention is warranted.

Study Design: Narrative review., Objective: There is a strong biological rationale to perform early decompression after traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). With an enlarging clinical evidence base, most spine surgeons internationally now favor early decompression for the majority of SCI patients; however, a number of pertinent questions remain surrounding this therapy., Methods: A narrative review evaluating the status of early surgery for SCI. In particular, we addressed the following questions: (1) Which patients stand to benefit most from early surgery? 2) What is the most appropriate time threshold defining early surgery?, Results: Although heterogeneity exists, the evidence generally seems to support early surgery. While the best evidence exists for cervical SCI, there is insufficient data to support a differential effect for early surgery depending on neurological level or injury severity. When comparing thresholds to define early versus late surgery-including a later threshold (48-72 hours), an earlier threshold (24 hours), and an ultra-early threshold (8-12 hours)-the 2 earlier time points seem to be associated with the greatest potential for improved outcomes. However, existing prehospital and hospital logistics pose barriers to early surgery in a significant proportion of patients. An overview of recommendations from the recent AOSpine guidelines is provided., Conclusion: In spite of increasing acceptance of early surgery post SCI, further research is needed to (1) identify subgroups of patients who stand to derive particular benefit-in particular to develop more evidence-based approaches for central cord syndrome and (2) investigate the efficacy and feasibility of ultra-early surgery targeting more aggressive timelines., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2020.)

Study Design: Broad narrative review., Objective: To review and summarize the current literature on guidelines, outcomes, techniques and indications surrounding multiple modalities of minimizing blood loss in spine surgery., Methods: A thorough review of peer-reviewed literature was performed on the guidelines, outcomes, techniques, and indications for multiple modalities of minimizing blood loss in spine surgery., Results: There is a large body of literature that provides a consensus on guidelines regarding the appropriate timing of discontinuation of anticoagulation, aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and herbal supplements prior to surgery. Additionally, there is a more heterogenous discussion the utility of preoperative autologous blood donation facilitated by erythropoietin and iron supplementation for healthy patients slated for procedures with high anticipated blood loss and for whom allogeneic transfusion is likely. Intraoperative maneuvers available to minimize blood loss include positioning and maintaining normothermia. Tranexamic acid (TXA), bipolar sealer electrocautery, and topical hemostatic agents, and hypotensive anesthesia (mean arterial pressure (MAP) <65 mm Hg) should be strongly considered in cases with larger exposures and higher anticipated blood loss. There is strong level 1 evidence for the use of TXA in spine surgery as it reduces the overall blood loss and transfusion requirements., Conclusion: As the volume and complexity of spinal procedures rise, intraoperative blood loss management has become a pivotal topic of research within the field. There are many tools for minimizing blood loss in patients undergoing spine surgery. The current literature supports combining techniques to use a cost- effective multimodal approach to minimize blood loss in the perioperative period., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Many of the authors have affiliations with organizations with financial interest (such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers’ bureaus; membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; and expert testimony or patent-licensing arrangements), or non-financial interest (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs) in some of the products mentioned in the study. There are no conflicts of interest in reference to any product mentioned in the content of this article., (© The Author(s) 2020.)

Study Design: Narrative review with commentary., Objective: Present healthcare reform focuses on cost-optimization and quality improvement. Spine surgery has garnered particular attention; owing to its costly nature. Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASC) present a potential avenue for expenditure reduction. While the economic advantage of ASCs is being defined, cost saving should not come at the expense of quality or safety., Methods: This narrative review focuses on current definitions, regulations, and recent medical literature pertinent to spinal surgery in the ASC setting., Results: The past decade witnessed a substantial rise in the proportion of certain spinal surgeries performed at ASCs. This setting is attractive from the payer perspective as remuneration rates are generally less than for equivalent hospital-based procedures. Opportunity for physician ownership and increased surgeon productivity afforded by more specialized centers make ASCs attractive from the provider perspective as well. These factors serve as extrinsic motivators which may optimize and improve quality of surgical care. Much data supports the safety of spine surgery in the ASC setting. However, health care providers and policy makers must recognize that current regulations regarding safety and quality are less than comprehensive and the data is predominately from selected case-series or comparative cohorts with inherent biases, along with ambiguities in the definition of "outpatient.", Conclusions: ASCs hold promise for providing safe and efficient surgical management of spinal conditions; however, as more procedures shift from the hospital to the ASC rigorous quality and safety data collection is needed to define patient appropriateness and track variability in quality-related outcomes., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2020.)

Background: Much attention has been focused on management of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI); however, comparatively little is known about management of traumatic hemorrhage in clinically mild TBI. We aimed to clarify the role of clinical observation and repeat radiography for patients with mild TBI and abnormal findings on initial computed tomography (CT) of the head., Methods: We queried the neurotrauma database of the Ontario Trauma Registry and the Sunnybrook institutional database to identify patients with CT findings of a traumatic hemorrhage or calvarial fracture between November 2014 and December 2016. Exclusionary criteria were age less than 16 years, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score less than 13, anticoagulant use, bleeding diathesis and midline shift greater than 5 mm. The primary outcome was the need for neurosurgical intervention., Results: A total of 607 patients were included. Most (374 [61.6%]) had a GCS score of 15; 185 (30.5%) and 48 (7.9%) had a GCS score of 14 and 13, respectively. Five patients (0.8%) required surgical intervention, all within the first 72 hours, owing to clinical deterioration with subsequently demonstrated radiographic evidence of expanding hemorrhage. Most patients (506 [83.4%]) had routine repeat imaging, without documented change in their neurologic status., Interpretation: The majority of patients in our cohort had repeat imaging, which did not influence surgical management, at substantial cost to the health care system. The findings suggest the need to reevaluate repeat imaging protocols for this subset of patients with TBI., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (Copyright 2019, Joule Inc. or its licensors.)

Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is a spinal cord condition that results in progressive non-traumatic compression of the cervical spinal cord. Spine surgeons must consider a large quantity of information relating to disease presentation, imaging features, and patient characteristics to determine if a patient will benefit from surgery for DCM. We applied a supervised machine learning approach to develop a classification model to predict individual patient outcome after surgery for DCM. Patients undergoing surgery for DCM as a part of the AOSpine CSM-NA or CSM-I prospective, multi-centre studies were included in the analysis. Out of 757 patients 605, 583, and 539 patients had complete follow-up information at 6, 12, and 24 months respectively and were included in the analysis. The primary outcome was improvement in the SF-6D quality of life indicator score by the minimum clinically important difference (MCID). The secondary outcome was improvement in the modified Japanese Orthopedic Association (mJOA) score by the MCID. Predictor variables reflected information about pre-operative disease severity, disease presentation, patient demographics, and comorbidities. A machine learning approach of feature engineering, data pre-processing, and model optimization was used to create the most accurate predictive model of outcome after surgery for DCM. Following data pre-processing 48, 108, and 101 features were chosen for model training at 6, 12, and 24 months respectively. The best performing predictive model used a random forest structure and had an average area under the curve (AUC) of 0.70, classification accuracy of 77%, and sensitivity of 78% when evaluated on a testing cohort that was not used for model training. Worse pre-operative disease severity, longer duration of DCM symptoms, older age, higher body weight, and current smoking status were associated with worse surgical outcomes. We developed a model that predicted positive surgical outcome for DCM with good accuracy at the individual patient level on an independent testing cohort. Our analysis demonstrates the applicability of machine-learning to predictive modeling in spine surgery., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Study Design: Narrative review with commentary., Objectives: The growing use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) often leaves clinicians faced with scenarios where imaging findings are inconsistent with the clinical picture. This is particularly relevant for degenerative cervical spinal cord compression (CSCC). In this article, we provide a focused narrative literature review to address whether (1) surgery should be offered to asymptomatic patients with CSCC and (2) should MRI spinal cord signal changes influence clinical decisions for a patient with mild myelopathy from CSCC?, Methods: Illustrative cases are presented with expert commentary which is supplemented by a focused literature review., Results: The literature suggests that CSCC from degenerative pathology is a common incidental radiographic finding. For those without symptoms of myelopathy, the short-term risk of progression is low. There is a lack of evidence to support surgery for asymptomatic individuals with CSCC who have no risk factors for progression. For these patients, the authors suggest non-operative management that includes education on the symptoms of myelopathy, clinical follow-up within 6 to 12 months, and avoidance of high-risk activities. Conversely, symptomatic patients have a notable risk of progression. Surgical intervention improves neurological function and quality of life regardless of severity. The authors support surgery as an option for all patients with mild myelopathy who are appropriate operative candidates. Intramedullary signal change on MRI has not been shown to reliably predict progression., Conclusions: While MRI technologies are under evolution, we advise that surgical decisions for patients with CSCC should rely on clinical assessment and not imaging findings., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Introduction: Pre-operative biopsy and diagnosis of chordomas of the mobile spine is indicated as en bloc resections improve outcomes. This review of the management of mobile spine chordomas includes two cases of unexpected mobile spine chordomas where a preoperative tissue diagnosis was decided against and may have altered surgical decision-making., Case Presentation: Two lumbar spine chordomas thought to be metastatic and primary bony lesions preoperatively were not biopsied before surgery and eventual pathology revealed chordoma. Preoperative diagnoses were questioned during surgery after an intraoperative tissue diagnosis of chordoma in one case and unclear pathology with non-characteristic tumor morphology in the other. The surgical plan was altered in these cases to maximize resection as en bloc resection reduces the risk of local recurrence in chordoma., Discussion: Mobile spine chordomas are rare and en bloc resection is recommended, contrary to the usual approach to more common spine tumors. Since en bloc resection of spine chordomas improves disease free survival, it has been recommended that tissue diagnosis be obtained preoperatively when chordoma is considered in the differential diagnosis, in order to guide surgical planning. We present two cases where a preoperative biopsy was considered but not obtained after neuroradiology consultation and imaging review, which may have been managed differently if the diagnosis of spine chordomas were known pre-operatively., Competing Interests: Compliance with ethical standardsThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Background: Rugby is a popular collision sport where participants are at risk of sustaining concussions. Most research focuses on elite-level or youth divisions. Comparatively, little is known about adult community rugby. The aim of this research was to estimate the risk of sustaining a concussion during participation in community-level rugby and summarize the collective knowledge and attitudes toward concussions., Hypothesis: Concussion symptoms will be reported frequently among community-level rugby players and a substantial proportion will report a willingness to continue participation despite the risk., Study Design: Cross-sectional analysis., Level of Evidence: Level 3., Methods: An anonymous, voluntary survey was administered to all 464 senior rugby players registered in the province of Manitoba in 2015. Two primary domains were assessed: (1) concussion history from the preceding season including occurrence, symptomatology, and impact on daily activities and (2) knowledge and attitudes toward concussion risks and management., Results: In total, 284 (61.2%) rugby players responded. Concussive symptoms were reported by 106 (37.3%). Of those, 87% were formally diagnosed with a concussion and 27% missed school and/or work as a result. The danger of playing while symptomatic was recognized by 93.7% of participants, yet 29% indicated they would continue while symptomatic. Furthermore, 39% felt they were letting others down if they stopped playing due to a concussion., Conclusion: Concussive symptoms were common among the study cohort and had a notable impact on daily activities. A high proportion of players were willing to continue while experiencing symptoms despite recognizing the danger. The observed discord between knowledge and attitudes implicates a culture of "playing injured.", Clinical Relevance: Understanding the risk of injury may affect an individual's decision to participate in community-level rugby. Moreover, evidence of discord between the knowledge and attitudes of players may direct future research initiatives and league governance.

Objective and Importance: A rare cause of intracranial hypotension is leakage of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) through a dural breach from degenerative cervical spine pathology. To our knowledge there have been only four cases described in the English literature. Treatment is challenging and varies from case to case, with complete symptom resolution reported for only one patient. Herein we review the literature and describe our surgical management of a 46-year-old woman with symptomatic intracranial hypotension from the penetration of the cervical thecal sac., Clinical Presentation: The patient presented with a 3-month history of progressive orthostatic headaches. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated bilateral subdural hematomas and pachymeningeal gadolinium enhancement. An anterior epidural CSF collection commencing at a C4-5 calcified disc protrusion and osteophyte was evident on a computed tomography spinal myelogram., Intervention: After three unsuccessful lumbar blood patches, we elected to attempt surgical removal of the causative pathology with exposure and primary closure of the dural defect by anterior cervical discectomy as described previously. After resection of the disc-osteophyte complex and dural exposure, immediate high volume egression of CSF mixed with blood at the surgical site. The dural defect was not visible but CSF egression promptly ceased. Cervical corpectomy for greater exposure and primary repair of the defect has been described, but we considered this unwarranted and felt the intraoperative blood collection formed a local blood patch. A collagen dural substitute membrane was inserted through the discectomy space for reinforcement., Conclusion: Two months after this novel surgical blood patch procedure the patient was asymptomatic and follow-up imaging demonstrated complete resolution.