UAB Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Professor and John D. Sherrill Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery Steven Theiss, M.D., alongside Associate Professor Sakthivel Rajaram Manoharan, M.D. and former Research Fellow Logan Reed, published a study addressing the risk factors of postoperative ileus after spinal fusion surgery.

This study was published in October of 2022 in the World Neurosurgery Journal and is titled “Risk Factors for Postoperative Ileus After Thoracolumbar and Lumbar Spinal Fusion Surgery: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.”

Postoperative ileus is a common complication, a generalized impairment of gastrointestinal motility found after spine surgery. This specific complication has a reported incident range of 10 to 30 percent among most surgical patients.

The study group conducted a comprehensive search of ten articles compromising a total of 297,809 patients showing ileus symptoms after the surgical treatment of spinal pathologies. Variables including gender, age, body mass index, comorbidities, approach, type of surgery performed, levels fused, anesthesia time and length of stay were considered as the main outcomes of measurement.

Results of the study showed that postoperative ileus after lumbar surgery had a statistically significant association with increased age, surgical time, anesthesia time, estimated blood loss, and length of stay. Furthermore, individuals who underwent spinal fusion had higher odds of postoperative ileus if they were male, if an anterior approach was performed or if less than three vertebral levels were fused. Body mass index did not show any association with postoperative ileus.

The study concludes that risk factors associated with postoperative ileus after spinal fusion surgery include male gender, older age, longer surgical times, higher estimated blood loss, longer lengths of stay, greater numbers of levels of fusion and anterior surgical approach.

You can read more on this study and its results here.