The Effect of Scoliosis Surgery on Lung Function in the Immediate Postoperative Period

Abstract

Our study found that patients are still at risk for postoperative complications as long as 1 week postoperatively and that PFTs do not return to near baseline until 1 to 2 months after surgery. The postoperative decrease in PFT should be considered during preoperative prediction of postoperative risk.

Standardizing Care for High-Risk Patients in Spine Surgery

“…Most PFTs normalized near baseline by 1 to 2 months after surgery. 24 Surgical approach is a major predictor of pulmonary complication. 16,23 Patients who have undergone transthoracic or combined thoracoabdominal procedures are more likely to have postoperative pulmonary complications than those undergoing posterior procedures alone.…”

Severe restrictive lung disease and vertebral surgery in a pediatric population

“…Pulmonary function is severely affected following scoliosis surgery [14]. In the immediate postoperative period, the functional respiratory test values decrease by up to 60% of the preoperative values, at 1 week, respiratory function is at 50%, and at 1 or 2 months, functional results return to the normal preoperative values, with no significant differences in the magnitude of the postoperative decrease according to the etiology of scoliosis (among 24 cases, 46% were idiopathic and 38% neuromuscular scoliosis), or the approach used in the surgical procedure.…”

“…Following surgery for spinal deformity, pulmonary function initially deteriorates and later recovers preoperative values; subsequently, deterioration continues with progression of the underlying disease [14]. Patients with severe restrictive lung disease associated with spinal deformity are a challenge for anesthesiologists and nutritional specialists, both in the preoperative preparation as well as the intraoperative and postoperative care.…”

Patient Factors Are Associated With Poor Short-term Outcomes After Posterior Fusion for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

“…Such factors are not only important clinically and for setting appropriate patient expectations, but they also are closely tied to total hospital costs associated with the procedure [30]. The information we have on risk factors for AEs in patients undergoing PSF have been derived mainly from studies that either were limited by small sample size [21,41,44,54], only studied one variable [2,16,25,29,31,42,44,45,50,55], included patients with neuromuscular scoliosis and cerebral palsy [5,19,20,24,32,43], used potentially flawed administratively coded or self-reported data [5,7,35,51], or included adult patients with deformity [35].…”