Influence of Surgeon Specialty on 30-day Outcomes Following Single-Level Cervical Disc Arthroplasty: A Propensity-Matched Analysis.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective, propensity-matched analysis. OBJECTIVES: Cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) is being increasingly utilized for cervical disc generation. Surgeon specialty has been shown to influence the risk for postoperative complications in spine surgery, but this has not yet been explored for CDA. Thus, the purpose of this study is to determine whether there is any difference in 30-day complications between patients undergoing single-level CDA by neurosurgeons vs by orthopaedic surgeons. METHODS: A retrospective, 1:1 propensity score matched analysis was performed using the NSQIP database from 2015 to 2020. Patient demographics, operative characteristics, and postoperative complications were recorded. Independent multivariate logistic regression models were constructed using the propensity-matched dataset to assess surgical specialty influence on any complication, any site complication, any operative infection, and any medical complications. RESULTS: 3179 single-level CDAs (28.8% orthopaedic surgery patients, 71.2% neurosurgery patients) were identified that met the inclusion criteria. Well-matched cohorts of 916 patients each were generated. After controlling for all possible confounders, orthopedic surgery specialty was not associated with a higher odds for any complication (OR: .87, 95% CI: .35 - 2.20, P = .7696), any site complication (OR: .32, 95% CI: .08 - 1.32, P = .1359), any operative infection (OR: .31, 95% CI: .07 - 1.34), P = .1172), nor any medical complication (OR: 2.11, 95% CI: .62 - 7.20, P = .2311) vs neurosurgery. CONCLUSION: This is the first propensity-matched analysis to show that spine surgeon specialty does not influence the risk for any complication, any site complication, any operative infection, nor any medical complication following single-level CDA within the first 30 days after surgery.

Shoulder, upper arm and elbow injuries in high school men's American football.

In order to reduce shoulder, upper arm and elbow injury rates in American football, identifying injury risk factors and any underlying associations is needed. No prior study has done such characterization at the high school level. A descriptive epidemiology study was performed using data from the National Athletic Treatment, Injury, and Outcomes Network Surveillance Program (NATION-SP) from the years 2011/12 to 2013/14 on high school football athletes. Four hundred and sixty total injuries were found in the dataset. Acromioclavicular (AC) sprains had the highest incidence of all injuries (0.060 injuries per 1000 exposures). Fractures lead to the greatest time lost (42.24 days). Most injuries occurred in older athletes (juniors and seniors, 30% and 32%, respectively), were related to tackling (31%), and in running back and linebacker positions (15% each). Orthopaedic surgeons and other sports medicine specialists can use these findings to educate players, coaches and families about injury risks and for improving injury prevention guidelines.