Authors

1 Ministry of Health, West Erbil Emergency Hospital, Neurosurgery Department

2 West Emergency Hospital, Neurosurgery Department, Erbil, IRAQ.

3 Kirkuk University, College of Medicine, Sardam Private Hospital

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is known as an important risk factor for surgical site infection(SSI) in spine surgery. A chronic state of impaired glucose metabolism affects multiple components of the immune system, possibly leading to an increased incidence of post-operative infection. Such infection increases morbidity, length of stay, and overall cost. The present study was designed to assess the correlation between pre-operative hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and the incidence of post-operative infection in surgical patients undergoing decomperssive spine operations.
  Forty diabetic patients who underwent  decompressive spine surgery at different levels of spine were included in this retrospective study. These include 23 females and 17 males with mean age of 57.5 years. The patients data were collected from hospitals and private clinics archives including value of preoperative hemoglobin A1c, random blood sugar, postoperative C-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cells count (WBC) as a diagnostic laboratory tests for identification of postoperative infection in follow-up periods.
 The overall rate of infection in our study was 12.5%, which was categorized into 2 groups (Uncontrolled diabetes hemoglobin A1c >7 and controlled hemoglobin A1C ≤7), so the rate of infection was 19.2% among patients with uncontrolled diabetes compared with 0% among patients with controlled diabetes (p=0.143). The mean hemoglobin A1c among patients with uncontrolled diabetes who developed infection was 9.72% compared with 7.34% among those with no infection (p <0.001)
 In conclusion, diabetic patients whose blood glucose levels were poorly controlled before surgery as indicated by high hemoglobin A1c were at high risk for postoperative wound infection. Preoperative hemoglobin A1c above 7.34% could serve as a threshold value for significant increased risk of postoperative surgical site infection.
 
Key words: Diabetes Mellitus, HbA1C, decompressive spine surgery, infection, complications.

Keywords