Study design: Retrospective cohort.
Objective: Evaluate the epidemiology of surgical patients with spinal metastases, identify the complications, and evaluate their neurological prognoses.
Summary of background data: The development of new oncological treatments and screening tests have increased the survival of oncologic patients, and consequently, the incidence of metastatic lesions of the spine.
Methods: Retrospective cohort of 40 patients surgically treated at the Hospital de Clínicas of UNICAMP for spinal metastases from January 2010 to September 2018, after diagnosis of symptomatic spinal cord compression and/or mechanical instability of the spine. Retrospectively analyzed patient charts applied the SINS score to evaluate the presence of mechanical instability. Neurological function was classified based on the Frankel index preoperative and postoperatively. To evaluate the association between variables, the Chi-square test, Fisher exact test, or Fisher-Freeman-Halton test was applied. For evaluating the improvement of neurological status between the Frankel scores before and after surgery, the McNemar test was applied for categorical and qualitative variables. In both the tests, variables with values of P > 0.05 were considered.
Results: Pain as the reason for the first visit presented an odds ratio (OR) = 2.44 (95% [CI]: 1.14-5.2) for instrumentation need (P = 0.024). A higher SINS score corresponded to the indication for instrumentation surgery due to the instability of the spine (P = 0.004). Within 30 days postoperative, five patients (11.1%) had complications. There was a statistically significant neurological improvement in patients who underwent surgery (P = 0.002).
Conclusion: Pain as the first symptom was related to mechanical instability of the spine and surgical instrumentation. Patients treated with surgery presented improvement of the neurological function in the postoperative period.
Level of evidence: 3.