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Causes and managements of postoperative complications after degenerative scoliosis treatments with internal fixation.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the causes and managements of early postoperative complications of degenerative scoliosis (DS) treated with internal pedicle screw fixation.


METHODS
From Jan 2000 to Apr 2013, 325 DS patients treated with internal pedicle screw fixation in our hospital were retrospectively involved. The categories, causes, managements and outcomes of early postoperative complications were statistically analyzed.


RESULTS
Early postoperative complications occurred in 10.76% of the patients including 16 cases of lower limb numb or pain, 6 cases of decreased lower limb sensitivity and motor functions, which accounted for 62.86% of all complications, followed by incision infections (4/35, 11.43%) and rare cases of cerebrospinal fluid leakage, cardiac and renal inadequacy, urinary system and pulmonary infections. The incidence of overall complications (19.79%, p = 0.001) and nerve injuries (11.46%, p = 0.000) were significantly higher in long-segment than in short-segment fixations. Improper screw implanting, over correction of scoliosis and insufficient blood supply of the spinal cord during operation were risk factors for early postoperative complications and most of them were cured by anti-infection medication, incision dressing change, nerve nourishment, adjusting the screws and anti-osteoporosis treatments within 6 months after surgery. Only three cases with severe nerve injury did not improve until the 6 months postoperative follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
Most of the postoperative complications in our DS patients disappeared within 6 months after surgery and more than half of complications were nerve injuries.