The number of spine surgeries is ever increasing globally and they are associated with overall higher rates of complication due to the nature of the bony and the intimately related major neuronal and vascular structures.
These complications may happen intra-operatively or the postoperative period and literature shows that unfavourable outcome may range from 10 to 15% for simple micro-discectomies. These can however be as high as even 50% for adult spinal deformities where the surgical time is prolonged, the blood loss is high and the patient may have many co-morbidities. Being a highly sensitive domain, these complications have attracted a high incidence of medico-legal issues with huge compensations.
With this background, the need for taking necessary steps to ensure utmost safety of patients undergoing spinal surgery cannot be understated and this is the topic of discussion for symposium.