A Retrospective Study of the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic Related Administrative Restrictions on Spine Surgery Practice and Outcomes in an Urban Healthcare System

The study objective is to characterize the impact of COVID-19 related hospital administrative restrictions on patient demographics, surgical care, logistics, and patient outcomes in spine surgery. This was a retrospective study of 331 spine surgery patients at UCSD conducted during 1 March 2019–31 May 2019 (pre-COVID-19) and 1 March 2020–31 May 2020 (first COVID-19 surge). All variables were collected through RedCap and compared between pre- and during-COVID groups. There were no significant differences in patient demographics, operating room duration, and skin-to-skin time. However, length of stay was 4.7 days shorter during COVID-19 ( p = 0.03) and more cases were classified as ‘urgent’ ( p = 0.04). Preoperative pain scores did not differ between groups ( p = 0.51). However, pain levels at discharge were significantly higher during COVID ( p = 0.04) and trended towards remaining higher in the short- ( p = 0.05) but not long-term ( p = 0.17) after surgery. There was no significant difference in the number of post-operative complications, but there was an increase in the use of the emergency room and telemedicine to address complications when they arose. Overall, the pandemic resulted in a greater proportion of ‘urgent’ spine surgery cases and shorter length of hospital stay. Pain levels upon discharge and at short-term timepoints were higher following surgery but did not persist in the long term.