Diabetes and complications of spinal surgery:a meta-analysis of comparative or controlled studies

Lin Qiao; Li Zhao-wei; Qian Xuan-kun; Jiang Jin; Wang Jian-min

doi:10.3969/j.issn.2095-4344.2015.53.022

Abstract：BACKGROUND:Currently, discectomy, fusion or decompression is considered an effective and conventional method for the treatment of spinal disease. Although there have been many reports on the adverse effects of diabetes on spinal surgery, but there are stil some differences. OBJECTIVE:To systematical y evaluate the observational studies and case-control studies about the effect of diabetes on the complications of spinal surgery. METHODS:The control ed and comparative studies regarding the effect of diabetes on the results and complications of spinal surgery were searched from the database according to the inclusion criteria. The observed indicators including mortality, revision rate, surgical site infection, the incidence of venous thrombosis, blood loss, operative time and hospitalization time. Two authors participated in extracting the data and evaluating the methodology and quality of the included studies. Meta-analysis was conducted according to the guidelines of epidemiological observational studies (MOOSE). The risk assessment of the extracted data was conducted using RevMan 5.2 software. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Eighteen literatures, involving 2 824 063 patients, were eventual y enrol ed. The experimental result showed that the mortality, surgical site infection, incidence of venous thrombosis of diabetic patients after the spinal surgery were significantly higher than those of non-diabetic patients;the hospital stay was significantly longer than that of non-diabetic patients (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in the risk of revision, intraoperative blood loss and operation time between diabetic patients and non-diabetic patients (P>0.05). These results suggest that diabetic patients take a higher risk once accepting the spinal surgery than the non-diabetic patients. Diabetes increases the risks of postoperative mortality, surgical site infection, venous thrombosis and hospitalization time after spinal surgery.