Paper #45: Development of a Risk Severity Score (RSS) Predicting Surgical Site Infection in Early Onset Scoliosis: Identifying High-Risk Patients.

The RSS was developed to quantify the risk of SSI when considering operative intervention in patients with early onset scoliosis undergoing spinal surgery. The tool includes neuromuscular etiology, myelomeningocele, spinal muscular atrophy, endocrine comorbidity, gastrointestinal comorbidity, pulmonary comorbidity, developmental delay, urinary incontinence, and ventriculoperitoneal shunt as predictive variables. The RSS can improve shared decision making with patients and families during preoperative counseling and aid policy makers and administrators in determining reliable and valid risk-adjusted outcome measures.