[Translated article] Efficacy of early versus delayed spinal cord decompression in neurological recovery after traumatic spinal cord injury: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

STUDY DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. OBJECTIVE: To compare early (<24h) versus late (>24h) spinal cord decompression on neurological recovery in patients with acute spinal cord injury. METHODS: A systematic review was performed according to the PRISMA protocol to identify studies published up to December 2022. Prospective cohort studies and controlled trials comparing early versus delayed decompression on neurological recovery were included. Variables included number of patients, level of injury, treatment time, ASIA grade, neurological recovery, use of corticosteroids, and complications. For the meta-analysis, the "forest plot" graph was developed. The risk of bias of the included studies was assessed using the ROBINS-I22 and Rob223 tools. RESULTS: Six of the seven studies selected for our review were included in the meta-analysis, with a total of 1188 patients (592 patients in the early decompression group and 596 in the delayed decompression group), the mean follow-up was 8 months, in 5 studies used methylprednisolone, the most reported complications were thromboembolic cardiopulmonary events. Five studies showed significant differences in favour of early decompression (risk difference 0.10, 95% confidence interval 0.07-0.14, heterogeneity 46%). The benefit was greatest in cervical and incomplete injuries. CONCLUSION: There is scientific evidence to recommend early decompression in the first 24h after traumatic spinal cord injury, as it improves final neurological recovery, and it should be recommended whenever the patient and hospital conditions allow it to be safely done.

Utility of the modified 5-item frail index to predict complications and reoperations after hallux valgus percutaneous surgery. / [Artículo traducido] Utilidad del índice de fragilidad modificado de 5 items para predecir complicaciones y reoperaciones después de la cirugía percutánea de hallux valgus.

INTRODUCTION: The modified 5-item frailty index (mFI-5) has been recently proposed as a useful tool for predicting postoperative complications in orthopedic surgery. We aimed to analyze the utility of this score in predicting complications and reoperations after hallux valgus (HV) deformity surgery. METHODS: 551 patients undergoing percutaneous HV corrective surgery were retrospectively reviewed. The mFI-5 was calculated based and patients were categorized in three groups: 1) non-frail: patients without any of the 5 comorbidities, 2) pre-frail: patients with one comorbidity and 3) frail: patients with two or more comorbidities. Complications and surgical reoperations were recorded. RESULTS: In the study period 772 percutaneous surgeries were performed to correct HV deformity, 551 patients were included with a median age of 60 (IQR 48-70). Three hundred eighty-nine patients were non-frail (70.6%), 132 were pre-frail (23.9%) and 30 were frail (5.4%). 75 patients suffered complications (13.6%). Even though the rate of complications was higher in frailty patients (23.3%) compared with pre-frail (13.6%) and non frail (12.8%), no significant differences were observed among groups. 48 patients required reoperation (8.7%) but the rate of reoperations among frailty groups was not significantly different (P=.11). Frailty patients had worse AOFAS scores at final follow up (P=.011). CONCLUSION: The mFI-5 was not useful to predict postoperative complications and reoperations after hallux valgus corrective surgery. Therefore, other factors should be considered when analyzing the risk of complications after HV corrective surgery.