Effects of regional practice on the outcome of anterior cervical spinal surgery

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Given the substantial differences in advancement among neurosurgery departments in Africa and North America, we hypothesize that the outcomes of anterior cervical decompression and fusion (ACDF) surgeries in Africa will differ from that of their counterparts practicing in North America in terms of length of stay (LOS), blood loss, average post-operative follow-up time, and readmission rate. We hypothesize that the reasons for a difference will be multifactorial, including limitation of resources, education, and patient load. CONCLUSION: The results of our study have found encouraging results among surgeons practicing in Africa and North America. Given the unfortunate lack of resources common in African countries, we expected to finder sharper differences in our results than we actually did, and we are very encouraged at the similarities in outcomes among surgeons responding from Africa and North America. Further study ought to be done to determine the causes of such differences that have the propensity to be detrimental to the patient