Methods: A group of 88 patients who underwent posterior spinal surgery with TIVP administration (treatment group) was compared to a historical control group of 70 patients who had received only standard systemic intravenous prophylaxis (control group) for the analysis of deep SSI rate and the involved organisms. Results: The overall rate of deep SSIs was 2.5% (4/158). All the SSIs were observed in patients who had posterior instrumentation and fusion for ≥3 levels. In the treatment group, the SSI rate was 3.4% (3/88), and the bacteria isolated were Escherichia coli (n=2) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=1). In the control group, the infection rate was 1.4% (1/70), and the isolated bacteria were Morganella morganii and Staphylococcus epidermidis. No statistically significant association was found between the SSI rates of the treatment and control groups. Conclusions Although the difference in the SSI rates was not statistically significant, the present results suggest that TIVP administration could not reduce the risk of deep SSIs after spinal surgery. Moreover, TIVP administration might also affect the underlying pathogens by increasing the propensity for gram-negative species.

Methods: We evaluated the abstracts presented at the annual meetings of the Spine Society of Europe between 2009 and 2012. Additionally, we recorded presentation categories, study designs, research types, random assignments of the subjects, single- or multi-center- based methodologies, and significance of the results. Results: We evaluated 965 abstracts, 53.5% of which were published in peer-reviewed journals. Publication rates were significantly higher for oral presentations (62.9%) and prospective studies (61.3%) as compared to the poster presentations (46.7%) and retrospective studies (44.2%), respectively (p <0.001). Clinical studies contributed to about 86.1% of the published abstracts. However, publication rates were significantly higher for laboratory studies as compared to clinical studies (70.1% vs. 50.8%, p <0.001). Multi-center studies were closer to publication than single-center studies (67.1% vs. 52.2%, p =0.009). Our study demonstrated that multi-center studies (odds ratio, 1.81; p =0.016) and laboratory studies (odds ratio, 2.60; p <0.001) are more likely to be published. Conclusions Multi-center collaborations dedicated to experimental studies in spine research are highly ranked and more likely to be published in peer-reviewed journals.

Methods: Anemia severity was defined following the 2011 World Health Organization guidelines. All patients had HRQoL tests as well as complete blood counts pre- and postoperatively. EHR is the admission within 30 days of discharge and was used as the dependent parameter. Results: This study comprised 225 surgically treated ASD patients with a median age of 62.0 years, predominantly women (80%). Of the 225 patients, 82, 137, and six had mild, moderate, and severe anemia at the time of discharge, respectively. Seventeen of the patients (mild [11, 64.7%]; moderate [5, 29.4%]; severe [1, 5.9%]) were readmitted within 30 days. The mean hemoglobin values were higher in readmitted patients (p=0.071). Infection was the leading cause of readmission (n=12), but a low hemoglobin level was not observed in any of these patients at the time of discharge. Except for Scoliosis Research Society-22 questionnaire, HRQoL improvements did not reach statistical significance in early readmitted patients in the first year after surgery. Conclusions The results of this study demonstrated that the occurrence and the severity of postoperative anemia are not associated with EHR in surgically treated patients with ASD. The findings of the current research suggested that clinical awareness of the parameters other than postoperative anemia may be crucial. Thus, improvements in HRQoL scores were poor in early readmitted patients 1 year after surgery.