Objective: Radiotherapy is one of the important treatment options for metastatic spinal tumors but is not the definite intervention in all cases, as there are patients who still require surgical treatment because of severe pain or neurologic events after this treatment. We evaluated the perioperative effects of preoperative radiotherapy in these cases as a future guide for surgeons on critical considerations in this period.
Methods: We included 328 patients in this study who had undergone decompression and fusion surgery for metastatic spinal tumors. Patients who underwent surgery with preoperative radiotherapy were designated as the radiotherapy group (group RT, n = 81), and cases of surgery without preoperative radiotherapy were assigned to the non-radiotherapy group (group nRT, n = 247). We compared the demographic, intraoperative, and postoperative factors between these 2 groups.
Results: In terms of intraoperative factors, statistically significant differences were evident in operation time, estimated blood loss, and transfusion (RT vs. nRT: 188.1 ± 80.7 minutes vs. 231.2 ± 106.1 minutes, 607.2 ± 532.7 mL vs. 830.1 ± 1324.7 mL, and 30.9% vs. 43.3%, P < 0.001, P < 0.031, and P < 0.048, respectively). With regard to postoperative factors, the incidence of infection, wound problems, and local recurrence were statistically higher in group RT (RT vs. nRT: 6.2% vs. 0.8%, 12.3% vs. 0.8%, 23.4% vs. 13.7%, P = 0.004, P < 0.001, and P = 0.038, respectively).
Conclusions: Preoperative radiotherapy has the intraoperative advantages of reducing bleeding and shortening the operating time, but postoperative caution is needed because of the possibility of infection, wound problems, and local recurrence increases.
Keywords: Bleeding; Infection; Metastatic spinal tumor; Preoperative radiotherapy.
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