PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Salmons, Harold I.
AU  - Lendner, Mayan
AU  - Divi, Srikanth N.
AU  - Dworkin, Myles
AU  - McKenzie, James
AU  - Tarazona, Daniel
AU  - Gala, Zachary
AU  - Lendner, Yovel
AU  - Woods, Barrett
AU  - Kaye, David
AU  - Savage, Jason
AU  - Kepler, Christopher
AU  - Kurd, Mark
AU  - Hsu, Victor
AU  - Radcliff, Kris
AU  - Rihn, Jeff
AU  - Anderson, Greg
AU  - Hilibrand, Alan
AU  - Vaccaro, Alex
AU  - Schroeder, Gregory
TI  - Effects of Operating Room Size on Surgical Site Infection Following Lumbar Fusion Surgery
AID  - 10.14444/6057
DP  - 2019 Oct 01
TA  - International Journal of Spine Surgery
PG  - 6057
4099  - https://www.ijssurgery.com/content/early/2019/10/23/6057.short
4100  - https://www.ijssurgery.com/content/early/2019/10/23/6057.full
AB  - Background Surgical site infections (SSIs) represent a devastating complication after spine surgery. Many factors have been identified, but the influence of operating room (OR) size on infection rate has not been assessed. Methods Two thousand five hundred and twenty-three patients who underwent open lumbar spine fusion at a single institution between 2010 and 2016 were included. Patients were dichotomized into large versus small groups based on OR volume. Bivariate logistic regression and a final multivariate model following a multicollinearity check were used to calculate odds of infection for all variables.Results A total of 63 patients (2.5%) developed SSIs with 46 (73%) in the larger OR group and 17 (27%) in the smaller OR group. The rate of SSIs in larger ORs was 3.02% compared with 1.81% in smaller ORs. Significant parameters impacting SSI in bivariate analysis included an earlier year of surgery, BMI > 30, more comorbidities, more levels decompressed and fused, smoking, and larger OR volumes. Multivariate analysis identified BMI > 30, Elixhauser scores, smoking, and increasing levels decompressed as significant predictors. Topical vancomycin was found to significantly decrease rate of infection in both analyses.Conclusions OR size (large versus small) was ultimately not a significant predictor of infection related to rates of SSIs, although it did show a clinical trend toward significance, suggesting association. Future prospective analysis is warranted.Level of Evidence 3.