Global French Spine Surgery Activity: Executive Report of Demographics Data and Trends

Abstract

Background: To date, there is no demographic study of spinal surgery in France. We analyzed the French trend of spinal surgery as well as the variations in incidence according to the type of pathology, the type of institutions, and its distribution on the territory.Methods: Retrospective cohort study using French National Health Data, from 2016 to 2019. We analyzed the market sare, the leakage rate, the utilization rate and the attractiveness rate for each region. Results: There were 103,350 surgical acts on spinal degenerative pathologies in 2019, an increase of 5% since 2016. This increase is found in all procedures, particularly in traumatology with an increase of 34%, from 10,340 procedures in 2016 to 13,858 in 2019. There was a 75% increase in treatments for infectious diseases.There was a clear decrease in the total number of procedures between 2019 and 2020 corresponding to the global pandemic at COVID 19 with a total decrease of 13%.The majority of spinal surgery procedures are performed in private structures and represent almost two-thirds of total activity, i.e. 80,147 procedures in 2019 out of 126,183. The distribution of spinal surgery is based on the major population centers, the coastal areas, and the cities with university hospitals.Conclusion: There is a growing increase in the number of spinal surgery procedures performed in France before the international pandemic with a clear slowdown afterwards. This trend affects all surgical procedures performed regardless of the indication or type of institution in which the procedures were performed, with a very clear increase in private institutions. There are major disparities in the organization of the positioning of the health care supply.

A Nationwide Study on the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Volume of Spine Surgery in South Korea

“…In the case of France, the total number of spinal surgery in 2020 decreased by 13% compared to 2019 due to the pandemic [ 6 ]. Unlike France, despite a prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the mean annual number of spine surgeries steadily increased between 2019 and 2021 in South Korea.…”