Official Journal of the Italian Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology
Table 1 Clavien–Dindo classification description and frequency of surgical complications as reported by spine surgeons
From: Influence of perioperative complication severity on 1- and 2-year outcomes of low back surgery
Care required | Complication | Total reported |
|---|---|---|
Grade I–II Clavien–Dindo | ||
Does not require alterations in the postoperative course of treatment, or are without need for additional pharmacological, surgical, endoscopic, or radiological interventions to treat the complication itself | Adjacent level disease/disc herniation—minor [22] | 0 |
Requires pharmacological treatment with drugs, including blood transfusions and total parenteral nutrition | Cardio/pulmonary [23] | 71 |
DVT/vascular/embolism [24] | 8 | |
Fracture—minor medical [25] | 0 | |
Fracture—minor surgical [25] | 0 | |
GI/GU—minor medical [26] | 26 | |
GI/GU—minor surgical [26] | 0 | |
Medical infection—minor [27] | 13 | |
Wound infection—minor [28] | 13 | |
Grade III–IV Clavien–Dindo | ||
Requires surgical, endoscopic, or radiological interventions to be corrected (III) or life-threatening single/multi-organ dysfunctions that require ICU management (IV) | Adjacent level disease/disc herniation—major [29] | 0 |
Bleeding/transfusion [30] | 55 | |
CSF/dural tear [31] | 261 | |
Fracture—major medical [25] | 0 | |
Fracture—major surgical [25] | 0 | |
GI/GU—major medical [26] | 2 | |
GI/GU—major surgical [26] | 3 | |
Hardware [32] | 41 | |
Medical infection—major [33] | 1 | |
Neural [34] | 19 | |
Nonunion [35] | 1 | |
Wound infection—major [28] | 0 | |
Grade V Clavien–Dindo | ||
Results in death of the patient | Death | 2 |