Rates, costs, return to work and reoperation following spinal surgery in a workers’ compensation cohort in New South Wales, 2010–2018: a cohort study using administrative data

Table. 1 Characteristics of the study cohort by surgery type

	Fusion	Decompression
Overall	N = 3690 claims	N = 5653
Mean (SD) age, years	43 (10)	43 (11)
Male, n (%)	2650 (71.8)	4353 (77)
Median (IQR) time to surgery, months	26 (10, 63)	9 (4, 25)
Mean (SD) follow-up time, years	3.5 (2.1)	3.2 (2.2)
Working prior to surgery, n/N (%)^a	1036/3183 (32.5)	1796/4538 (39.6)

SD standard deviation; IQR interquartile range
^a Work status measured in the 31-day period prior to surgery; pre-operative work status was available for 86.2 % (3183/3690) of the fusion cohort and 80.3 % (4538/5653) of the decompression cohort

ISSN: 1472-6963