Comprehensive surgical treatment strategy for spinal metastases

The management of patients with spinal metastases (SM) requires a multidisciplinary team of specialists involved in oncological care. Surgical management has evolved significantly over the recent years, which warrants reevaluation of its role in the oncological treatment concept. Any patient with a SM was screened for study inclusion. We report baseline characteristics, surgical procedures, complication rates, functional status and outcome of a large consecutive cohort undergoing surgical treatment according to an algorithm. 667 patients underwent 989 surgeries with a mean age of 65 years (min/max 20–94) between 2007 and 2018. The primary cancers mostly originated from the prostate (21.7%), breast (15.9%) and lung (10.0%). Surgical treatment consisted of dorsoventral stabilization in 69.5%, decompression without instrumentation in 12.5% and kyphoplasty in 18.0%. Overall survival reached 18.4 months (95% CI 9.8–26.9) and the median KPS increased by 10 within hospital stay. Surgical management of SMs should generally represent the first step of a conclusive treatment algorithm. The need to preserve long-term symptom control and biomechanical stability requires a surgical strategy currently not supported by level I evidence.