Martin CT. Spine. 2014. doi:10.1097/BRS.0000000000000501.
Despite stable utilization rates for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis fusions over time, hospital charges have increased significantly and a shift toward posterior-only procedures has been observed, according to study findings.
Christopher T. Martin, MD, and colleagues used International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, billing codes to retrospectively identify 29,594 adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) fusion cases from the National Inpatient Service database between 2001 and 2011. The researchers compared the trended data against that of other common procedures.
The researchers found that utilization rates for AIS fusions remained constant over the study period, whereas rates of adult spinal fusions had a 64% increase. Additionally, anterior thoracic fusion rates decreased by 80%, according to the researchers.
When accounting for inflation, mean hospital charges for AIS spinal fusions increased from $72,780 in 2001 to $155,278 in 2011, marking an increase of about 113% over the study period and an annual average increase of about 11.3%. Costs for adult spinal fusions increased at a similar rate, and spinal implants may be the primary factor behind the increased charges overall, according to the researchers.
In their comparison with other procedures, the researchers found that charges for other non-spine conditions increased to much lesser degree.
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.
