AO Spine Knowledge Forum Degenerative

Prospective international multicenter registry about surgical treatment of degenerative spine conditions and the use of osteobiologics

Principal investigator:

S. Tim Yoon

Co-Principal investigator:

Jeffrey Wang

Goals:

The aim is to better understand degenerative spinal disorders and what kind of biologics are used in degenerative cases by assessing their effectiveness in terms of patient-reported outcomes, complications, and fusion rates.

Specific Topics:

AOSpine Surgical Treatment of Lumbar Spondy (STL-Spondy)

Investigators: Patrick Hsieh and Michael Virk
The goal is to investigate the difference in clinical outcomes of common surgical procedures for degenerative spondylolisthesis.

AOSpine Interbody Materials for Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (IM-ACDF)

Investigators:

Hans Jörg Meisel and Amit Jain
The goal is to understand and compare structural allograft vs. PEEK-based interbody devices in the anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) procedure with respect to fusion rates, rates of secondary surgery, and patient-reported outcomes.

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02802033

Documents:

Publication summary

Principal investigator:

Hans Jörg Meisel

Co-Principal investigators:

Jeffrey Wang, Zorica Buser

Goals:

Aims to formulate precisely defined, clinically relevant and internationally applicable guidelines ensuring evidence-based, safe, and effective use of osteobiologics, considering regional preferences and cost-effectiveness. The study follows GRADE approach, and the current research focus is on anterior cervical discectomy and fusion.

Principal investigator:

Tim Yoon

Co-Principal investigators:

Zorica Buser

Goals:

Aims to develop a framework to evaluate the level of evidence supporting the use of bone grafts. It will help surgeons to understand the quality of the information that is provided for each product used

Documents:

Publication summary

Incidence of Post-operative Rare Complications after Lumbar Spine Surgery: An AO Spine Multicenter retrospective study

Principal investigator:

Jeffrey Wang

Co-Principal investigators:

Zorica Buser, Christopher Martin

Goals:

The purpose of this retrospective multicenter case series is to identify the incidence of specific rare lumbar spine complications, associated risk factors, as well as outcomes and treatments of those complications. The findings will help with treatment planning and patient counseling. In addition, this study will be used as a research training platform for young surgeons and fellows.

A quantitative analysis of serum and wound concentrations of systemic and local prophylactic antibiotics in spine surgery

Principal investigator:

Arun Kumar Viswanadha

Co-Principal investigator:

Naresh Babu J

Goals:

Aims to analyze serum and wound concentrations of antibiotics administered by two different routes i.e. systemic and intra wound application

Principal investigator:

Carla Cunha

Co-Principal investigator:

Susana G. Santos, Mário A. Barbosa, Paulo Pereira

Goals:

Aims to demonstrate and define the role of macrophages in hernia regression

A Novel MRI Tool for Quantifying Intervertebral Disc Degeneration in Low Back Pain

Principal investigator:

Kyle Sheldrick

Co-Principal investigators:

Ashish Diwan, Uphar Chamoli

Goals:

Aims to establish the normal values for human intervertebral discs using the Decay Variance technique and determine whether these values differ in people suffering chronic low back pain

Health technology assessment (HTA) on biologics in spine surgery

Principal investigator:

All steering committee members

Goals:

Aimed to perform three systematic reviews to assess the efficacy and safety of:

• ICBG compared with other types of autograft;
• allograft compared with all other types of graft;
• DBM compared with autograft, allograft or other bone graft substitutes in cervical and thoracolumbar fusion;
• and the use of stem cells in spine degenerative conditions.

Documents:

Publication summary

Insurance database

Principal investigator:

Jeffrey Wang

Goals:

Aimed to mine large databases of HIPAA-compliant orthopedic and non-orthopedic records that contain charging, reimbursement, cost, diagnosis, procedure, hospital, patient demographic, and co-morbidity data, and other related data that enables us to evaluate the costs and care patterns for health care services: evaluation of the trends, complications, and costs associated with the use of biologics in spine surgery

Documents:

Publication summary

Survey on the current use of structural and non-structural graft materials among spine surgeons worldwide

Principal investigator:

S. Tim Yoon

Goals:

Aim was to learn what kind of graft materials spine surgeons around the world use generally for their ACDF procedures

Documents:

Publication summary