The authors need to be appreciated for evaluating the 30-day risk for sepsis following spine surgeries for intradural extramedullary (IDEM) tumor resection. This unique subset of spinal tumors has not been analyzed separately in the published literature for postoperative spinal infections, despite the well-known susceptibility of solid tumor patients to infections. Likewise, this is a discrete heterogenous cohort with varying levels of tissue invasiveness combining both benign and malignant tumors, especially with a well-recognized complication related to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak which again predisposes to meningitis, sepsis, and septic shock. Mo et al. (1) present a large volume retrospective analysis of 2,027 patients who underwent laminectomy for IDEM tumors, identified from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) database. They have highlighted the risk factors that predispose a patient to sepsis, and these include etiologies, such as superficial and deep wound infections, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, increased length of stay (>5 days), repeat surgery within 30 days, blood transfusions, higher anesthesia grade, poor pre-operative dependent functional status of the patient and longer operating time. The mean time to diagnose sepsis was 14 days, which was consistent with the published data. Of note, the laminectomy per se did not pose additional risk for sepsis and there was no correlation between sepsis-related complications and mortality.
