Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Symptomatic postoperative hematoma after spine surgery is a rare but serious complication. The objective of this study was to investigate the incidence and clinical features of symptomatic postoperative hematoma after spine surgery. METHODS: We retrospectively identified 10,680 patients who underwent spine surgery between 2002 and 2012 in nine hospitals. We reviewed the incidence of postoperative hematoma and its clinical features, including time before onset, main symptoms, and neurological outcomes. RESULTS: The overall incidence of symptomatic postoperative hematoma after spine surgery was 0.4% (45/10,680). Postoperative hematoma was more frequent after thoracic spine surgery than after cervical or lumbar surgery. The onset of postoperative hematoma occurred at an average of 2.6 days (range 0-14 days) postoperatively. The chief symptoms caused by postoperative hematoma after spine surgery were tetra/paraplegia in 30 patients, hemiplegia in eight patients, intractable pain in five patients, and airway dysfunction in two patients. Surgical evacuation of the spinal epidural hematoma resulted in improvement of at least one grade in 35 patients, while four patients had complete motor paralysis even after evacuation surgery. CONCLUSIONS: We report the clinical details of 45 patients with postoperative hematoma after spine surgery. This information could assist surgeons to make a prompt diagnosis and perform early evacuation surgery for postoperative hematoma following spine surgery.