Incidence of postoperative wound infections: “Open” compared with MIS procedures
| Authors | N | Predominant type of spine surgery | No. of postoperative spine infections | Ratio | Incidence of infection |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open spine procedures | |||||
| Spangfort14 | 10,104 | Lumbar laminectomies | 290 | 290/10,104 | 2.9% |
| Smith et al.15 | 94,115 | Posterior spinal fusions | 2,280 | 2,280/94,115 | 2.4% |
| Daubs et al.16 | 46 | Spinal deformity posterior instrumentation | 2 | 2/46 | 4.3% |
| MIS spine procedures | |||||
| Perez-Cruet et al.17 | 150 | Microendoscopic discectomy (MED) | 0 | 0/150 | 0% |
| Schwender et al.18 | 49 | MIS TLIF | 0 | 0/49 | 0% |
| Selznick et al.19 | 43 | MIS TLIF | 0 | 0/43 | 0% |
| O'Toole et al.3 | 1,338 | Mixed—78% simple decompressions, 20% instrumented arthrodesis | 3 | 3/1,338 | 0.22% |
| Matched series (open + MIS) | |||||
| Rodgers and Michitsch12 | 144 | Instrumented posterior lumbar fusions | 6 | 6/144 | 4.2% |
| Rodgers et al.13 | 313 | XLIF | 0 | 0/313 | 0% |
| Rovner et al.20 | 251 | Open TLIF | 9 | 9/251 | 3.6% |
| Rovner et al.20 | 196 | MIS TLIF | 0 | 0/196 | 0% |
| Isaacs et al.21 | 29 | XLIF with open posterior instrumentation | 3 | 3/29 | 10% |
| Isaacs et al. 21 | 78 | XLIF and XLIF with MIS posterior instrumentation | 0 | 0/78 | 0% |
| Smith et al.15 | 94,115 | Deep infections, all open cases | 1,414 | 1,414/94,115 | 1.5% |
| Smith et al.15 | 35 | Deep infections, all MIS cases | 14,301 | 35/14,301 | 0.2% |
Abbreviations: TLIF, transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion; XLIF, extreme lateral interbody fusion.