Patient characteristics and demographic variables.
| Laminectomy Without Fusion | Laminectomy With Fusion | ||||
| Variable | n | % | n | % | P Value |
| Total | 1846 | 181 | |||
| Cervical | 301 | 16% | 72 | 40% | <0.001 |
| Thoracic | 801 | 43% | 67 | 37% | |
| Lumbar | 734 | 40% | 42 | 23% | |
| Age, y, mean | 54.8 | 56.8 | 0.1118 | ||
| Body mass index, mean | 29.27 | 29.73 | 0.4186 | ||
| Male | 833 | 45% | 91 | 50% | 0.184 |
| Female | 1013 | 55% | 90 | 50% | |
| American Society of Anesthesiologists classification | |||||
| 1 | 73 | 4% | 4 | 2% | 0.046 |
| 2 | 749 | 41% | 66 | 36% | |
| 3 | 936 | 51% | 94 | 52% | |
| 4 | 85 | 5% | 16 | 9% | |
| Smoking | 265 | 14% | 31 | 17% | 0.314 |
| Functional status | |||||
| Independent | 1722 | 93% | 171 | 94% | 0.617 |
| Dependent | 99 | 5% | 9 | 5% | |
| Totally dependent | 17 | 1% | 0 | 0% | |
| Unknown | 8 | 0% | 1 | 1% | |
| Diabetes | 239 | 13% | 20 | 11% | 0.466 |
| Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease | 49 | 3% | 7 | 4% | 0.342 |
| Congestive heart failure | 3 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0.587 |
| Hypertension | 719 | 39% | 85 | 47% | 0.035 |
| Renal failure | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | |
| Dialysis | 2 | 0% | 2 | 1% | 0.004 |
| Weight loss | 19 | 1% | 1 | 1% | 0.536 |
| Steroid use | 116 | 6% | 19 | 10% | 0.03 |
| Bleeding disorder | 32 | 2% | 3 | 2% | 0.94 |
| Dyspnea at rest | 3 | 0% | 1 | 1% | 0.048 |
| Dyspnea at moderate exertion | 56 | 3% | 11 | 6% | |
Note: Data presented as n and % unless otherwise indicated.