The growing burden of spine surgical wait times: a retrospective cohort study of longitudinal trends and impact on perioperative outcomes

BACKGROUND: Surgical delays are common in public health care systems such as Canada's. Trends in wait times for elective spine surgery and their impact on outcomes remain uncharacterized. METHODS: We performed a single-centre analysis of elective spine surgery data between 2009 and 2020. We assessed wait times between referral and initial consultation (T1), consultation and surgical booking (interval wait time; Ti), and booking and surgery (T2) in terms of trends and impact on perioperative outcomes (adverse events and hospital length of stay [LOS]). RESULTS: < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Total wait times (T1+Ti+T2) for elective spine surgery significantly increased between 2009 and 2020. Ti showed the largest increase over the study period and was associated with a significant increase in adverse events. Future studies should investigate the impact of various efforts implemented and whether this translates to improved surgical outcomes and resource management.