A group of surgeons and researchers studied 265 consecutive patients with scoliosis treated by posterior spinal fusion to examine how often postoperative images detected an implant-related complication that prompted a revision surgery, and published their results in Spine.
The researchers followed patients for 16.3 months and found that only 18 of the 2,990 postoperative radiographs showed a "positive finding," and there were only five radiographs that prompted revision surgery. None of the patients returned to the operating room just from the radiographical finding.
The researchers found that the postoperative plain radiographs had a sensitivity of 26.5 percent, specificity of 99.5 percent and postoperative predictive value of 25 percent.
"Isolated postoperative radiographs did not lead to any changes in management, and consideration should be given to reviewing current protocols for plain radiographs as a monitoring tool after PSF," wrote the researchers in the study's conclusion.
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