Incidental durotomy in degenerative spinal surgery

Background. Incidental durotomy is a common complication in degenerative spine surgery and according to the literature occurs in 1 to 17%. Different clinical cases with severe complications are described and which are resulted in wrong tactics for dural lesion treatment.Objective. To evaluate frequency, treatment methods and possible complications of incidental durotomy in spinal degenerative disease surgery.Material and Methods. A retrospective analysis of the data of 859 patients who underwent surgery in spinal department since 2018 till 2021.Results. 22 cases of incidental durotomies were found. One during anterior cervical discectomy (ACD), one during lumbar laminectomy with posterior instrumentation, six during microdiscectomy and fourteen during lumbar minimally invasive unilateral decompression. Three patients repeated revision surgery due to complication: liquorrhea, wound infection. Maximum follow-up period was 24 months. Positive results were achieved in all cases. The frequency of incidental durotomies depends on whether the operation is revision: 18.8% (9 injuries out of 48 revision operations) vs. 1.6% (13 injuries out of 811 primary operations). p function show_eabstract() { $('#eabstract1').hide(); $('#eabstract2').show(); $('#eabstract_expand').hide(); }