A study published in Spine, explores the trends of various spine surgeries being performed in hospital outpatient settings versus ambulatory surgery centers.
Researches reviewed the Truven Health Marketscan Research Database for spine surgeries performed between 2003 and 2014. Surgeries were categorized as inpatient hospital, outpatient hospital or ASC.
Here are four trends:
1. In hospital outpatient centers, lumbar decompression laminotomy first level saw the greatest influx of surgeries from 18.7 percent to 68.5 percent.
2. Posterior cervical decompression laminectomy without facetectomy first level also grew in the outpatient hospital setting from 0 percent to 46.7 percent.
3. ASCs saw a modest increase in decompression laminotomy first level procedures during the study period, 0.7 percent to 10.6 percent.
4. Posterior cervical decompression laminotomy first level procedures grew from 0 percent to 23.4 percent within ACS.
“True ambulatory surgeries are not increasing at the same rate as outpatient procedures with 23-hour observation capacity. Although prior studies have demonstrated the safety of outpatient spine surgery, one possible reason for this trend may be the surgeons feel that this safety may not be comparable to that of other outpatient procedures,” study authors concluded.