Research Article Outcomes and National Trends for the Surgical Treatment of Lumbar Spine Trauma Doniel Drazin, 1 Miriam Nuno, 1 Faris Shweikeh, 1,2 Alexander R. Vaccaro, 3 Eli Baron, 1 Terrence T. Kim, 4 and J. Patrick Johnson 1,5 1 Department of Neurosurgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA 2 Department of Surgery, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA 3 Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Tomas Jeferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA 4 Department of Orthopedics, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA 5 Department of Neurosurgery, University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA 95820, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Doniel Drazin; ddrazin@gmail.com Received 13 February 2016; Revised 21 May 2016; Accepted 22 May 2016 Academic Editor: Panagiotis Korovessis Copyright © 2016 Doniel Drazin et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Introduction. Operative treatment of lumbar spine compression fractures includes fusion and/or cement augmentation. Our aim was to evaluate postoperative diferences in patients treated surgically with fusion, vertebroplasty, or kyphoplasty. Methods. Te Nationwide Inpatient Sample Database search for adult vertebral compression fracture patients treated 2004–2011 identifed 102,316 surgical patients: 30.6% underwent spinal fusion, 17.1% underwent kyphoplasty, and 49.9% underwent vertebroplasty. Univariate analysis of patient and hospital characteristics, by treatment, was performed. Multivariable analysis was used to determine factors associated with mortality, nonroutine discharge, complications, and patient safety. Results. Average patient age: fusion (46.2), kyphoplasty (78.5), vertebroplasty (76.7) ( < .0001). Gender, race, household income, hospital-specifc characteristics, and insurance diferences were found ( ≤ .001). Leading comorbidities were hypertension, osteoporosis, and diabetes. Risks for higher mortality (OR 2.0: CI: 1.6–2.5), nonroutine discharge (OR 1.6, CI: 1.6–1.7), complications (OR 1.1, CI: 1.0–1.1), and safety related events (OR 1.1, CI: 1.0–1.1) rose consistently with increasing age, particularly among fusion patients. Preexisting comorbidities and longer in-hospital length of stay were associated with increased odds of nonroutine discharge, complications, and patient safety. Conclusions. Fusion patients had higher rates of poorer outcomes compared to vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty cohorts. Mortality, nonroutine discharge, complications, and adverse events increased consistently with older age. 1. Introduction Lumbar compression fractures are among the most com- mon medical and surgical conditions encountered by spinal surgeons [1]. Approximately 1.4 million patients sustain vertebral compression fractures every year [2], with an annual inpatient cost just under $5 billion [3]. Compression fractures disproportionately afect the elderly (65+ years) secondary to osteoporosis, which is responsible for >700,000 spinal fracture cases in the United States annually [4]. Although traumatic lumbar fractures represent a small portion in all trauma patients, their physical and fnancial burden on patients are more signifcant than other injuries [5]. Standard treatment of vertebral compression fractures consists of conservative management, including bed rest, bracing, and analgesics [6]. Studies, however, have noted that these practices are ofen insufcient in improving pain and mobility of these patients [7–9]. Operative interventions, namely, surgical fusion with instrumentation and cement augmentation procedures, have been gaining popularity [10, 11] as studies have shown both short-term physical improve- ments [12–14] and long-term survival benefts [15, 16] in select patients undergoing surgical intervention for compression fractures. Numerous studies have looked at national trends and outcomes of cement augmentation procedures (vertebro- plasty and kyphoplasty) for vertebral compression fractures [13, 15–18]. Tese studies, however, do not evaluate difer- ences in demographics and outcomes among surgical fusion, Hindawi Publishing Corporation BioMed Research International Volume 2016, Article ID 3623875, 9 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/3623875