Post-Operative Complications Associated with Long-Term NSAID or Long-Term Opioid Use Prior to Lumbar Spinal Fusion Surgery

Abstract

ObjectiveLower back pain (LBP) has been implicated as a significant cause of chronic pain in the United States, often requiring analgesic use. In this study, we investigate the trends in long-term preoperative NSAID (LTN) and Opioid (LTO) use in patients with low back pain in the United States, and the resultant postoperative complications following lumbar fusion. MethodsIn this retrospective cohort study of patients with lumbar pathologies, multivariate population-based regression models were developed using the 2010–2017 National Readmission Database. Short-term complications (30-, 90-day) and long-term complications (180-, 300-day) were analyzed at readmission. ResultsOf patients diagnosed with LBP (N = 1427,190) we found a rise in LTO users and a fall in LTN users following 2015. We identified 654,264 individuals who received a lumbar spine fusion, of which 22,975 were LTN users and 11,213 were LTO users. LTO users had significantly higher total inpatient charges (p-value<0.0001) and LOS (p-value<0.0001), while LTN users had lower rates of acute infection (OR: 0.993, 95% CI: 0.987–0.999, p = 0.017) and acute posthemorrhagic anemia (OR: 0.957, 95% CI: 0.935–0.979, p < 0.001) at primary admission. Readmission analysis showed that LTN use had significantly lower odds of readmission compared to LTO use at all time points (p < 0.01 for all). LTN use had significantly higher odds of hardware failure (OR: 1.134, 95% CI: 1.039–1.237, p = 0.005) within 300-days of receiving a lumbar fusion. ConclusionsLTO users had significantly higher readmission rates compared to LTN. In addition, we found that LTN use was associated with significantly higher odds of hardware failure at long-term follow-up in patients receiving lumbar fusion surgery.