Case manager-assisted rehabilitation for lumbar spinal fusion patients: an economic evaluation alongside a randomized controlled trial with two-year follow-up.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the cost-effectiveness of case manager-assisted rehabilitation as an add-on to usual physical rehabilitation after lumbar spinal fusion, given the lack of any clinical benefits found on analysing the clinical data. DESIGN: Economic evaluation alongside a randomized controlled trial with two-year follow-up. SETTING: Patients from the outpatient clinics of a university hospital and a general hospital. SUBJECTS: A total of 82 lumbar spinal fusion patients. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomized one-to-one to case manager-assisted rehabilitation programme as an add-on to usual physical rehabilitation or to usual physical rehabilitation. MAIN MEASURES: Oswestry Disability Index and EuroQol 5-dimension. Danish preference weights were used to estimate quality-adjusted life years. Costs were estimated from micro costing and national registries. Multiple imputation was used to handle missing data. Costs and effects were presented with means (95% confidence interval (CI)). The incremental net benefit was estimated for a range of hypothetical values of willingness to pay per gain in effects. RESULTS: No impact of case manager-assisted rehabilitation on the Oswestry Disability Index or estimate quality-adjusted life years was observed. Intervention cost was Euros 3984 (3468; 4499), which was outweighed by average reductions in inpatient resource use and sickness leave. A cost reduction of Euros 1716 (-16,651; 20,084) was found in the case manager group. Overall, the probability for the case manager-assisted rehabilitation programme being cost-effective did not exceed a probability of 56%, regardless of willingness to pay. Sensitivity analysis did not change the conclusion. CONCLUSION: This case manager-assisted rehabilitation programme was unlikely to be cost-effective.

Discharge Disposition After Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion.

OBJECTIVE: Age and comorbidity burden of patients going anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) have increased significantly over the past 2 decades, resulting in increased expenditures. Non-home discharge after ACDF contributes to increased direct and indirect costs of postoperative care. The purpose of this study was to identify independent prognostic factors for discharge disposition in patients undergoing ACDF. METHODS: A retrospective review was conducted at 5 medical centers to identify patients undergoing ACDF for degenerative conditions. The primary outcome was non-home discharge. Additional outcomes considered included discharge to rehabilitation and home discharge with services. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were used to identify independent prognostic factors for non-home discharge. RESULTS: Of 2070 patients undergoing ACDF, 114 (5.5%) had non-home discharge and 63 (3.0%) had discharge to inpatient rehabilitation. Factors independently associated with non-home discharge included older age, marital status, Medicare insurance, Medicaid insurance, previous spine surgery, myelopathy, preoperative comorbidities (hemiplegia/paraplegia, congestive heart failure, cerebrovascular accident), anemia, and leukocytosis. C-statistic for the overall model was 0.85. Results were relatively similar for patients younger than the age of 65 years as well as for discharge to inpatient rehabilitation and discharge home with services. CONCLUSIONS: Numerous sociodemographic and clinical characteristics influence the risk of non-home discharge and discharge to inpatient rehabilitation in patients undergoing ACDF. Policy makers and payers should consider these factors when determining appropriate preoperative adjustment for risk-based reimbursements.

Return to Work After Diskogenic Fusion in Workers' Compensation Subjects.

Lumbar fusion for degenerative disk disease (DDD) is associated with variable clinical outcomes. Patients with workers' compensation claims often have worse fusion outcomes than the general population. Few studies have evaluated the risk factors for poor outcomes within this clinically distinct population. The goal of this study was to identify preoperative predictors of return to work status after fusion for DDD in a workers' compensation setting. The authors used International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9), diagnosis and Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) procedural codes to identify 1037 subjects from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation database who underwent fusion for DDD between 1993 and 2013. Of these subjects, 23.2% (n=241) made a sustained return to work within 2 years after fusion. To identify preoperative predictors of postoperative return to work status, the authors used multivariate logistic regression analysis, adjusting for many important covariates. These included prolonged time out of work (P<.001; odds ratio [OR], 0.24), psychiatric history (P<.001; OR, 0.14), prolonged use of opioid analgesics (P<.001; OR, 0.46), male sex (P=.014; OR, 0.65), and legal representation (P=.042; OR, 0.67). The return to work rates associated with these risk factors were 10.4%, 2.0%, 11.9%, 21.1%, and 20.7%, respectively. Of the study subjects, 76.8% (n=796) did not return to work and had considerably worse postoperative outcomes, highlighted by chronic opioid dependence and high rates of failed back syndrome, additional surgery, and new psychiatric comorbidity. The low return to work rates and other generally poor outcomes reported in this study may indicate a more limited role for lumbar fusion among patients with DDD who have workers' compensation claims. More studies are needed to determine whether fusion for DDD can improve function and quality of life in these patients.