In this cross-sectional analysis of more than 5 million US lumbar fusion procedures from 2002 to 2023, researchers found that overall utilization increased initially before modest decline, while procedural complexity shifted toward multilevel and combined anterior-posterior approaches, alongside a growing migration to outpatient settings. Inflation-adjusted total hospital costs rose 265% and per-procedure costs increased substantially, largely driven by this evolving case mix despite ongoing uncertainty regarding clinical benefit for some common degenerative indications.

Source: JAMA Network Open