Prediction of early postoperative complications and transfusion risk after lumbar spinal stenosis surgery in geriatric patients: machine learning approach based on comprehensive geriatric assessment

Abstract Background Lumbar spinal stenosis is one of the most common surgery-requiring conditions of the spine in the aged population. As elderly patients often present with multiple comorbidities and limited physiological reserve, individualized risk assessment using comprehensive geriatric assessm...

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Main Authors: Wounsuk Rhee, Sam Yeol Chang, Bong-Soon Chang, Hyoungmin Kim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2025-07-01
Series:BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-025-03125-1
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author Wounsuk Rhee
Sam Yeol Chang
Bong-Soon Chang
Hyoungmin Kim
author_facet Wounsuk Rhee
Sam Yeol Chang
Bong-Soon Chang
Hyoungmin Kim
author_sort Wounsuk Rhee
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Background Lumbar spinal stenosis is one of the most common surgery-requiring conditions of the spine in the aged population. As elderly patients often present with multiple comorbidities and limited physiological reserve, individualized risk assessment using comprehensive geriatric assessment is crucial for optimizing surgical outcomes. Methods Patients 65 years or older who underwent elective surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis between June 2015 and December 2018 were prospectively enrolled, resulting in 261 eligible patients of age 72.3 ± 4.8 years (male 108, female 153). Twenty-seven experienced complications of Clavien-Dindo grade 2 or higher within 30 days, and 79 received transfusion during hospital stay. The cohort was split into train-validation (n = 208) and test (n = 53) sets. A total of 48 features, including demographics, comorbidity, nutrition, and perioperative status, were collected. Logistic regression, support vector machine (SVM), random forest, XGBoost, and LightGBM were trained using five-fold cross-validation. AUROC and AUPRC were considered the primary performance metrics, and the results were compared with those estimated with ACS-NSQIP scoring system. A set of Compact models incorporating a smaller number of features was also trained, and SHAP analysis was conducted to evaluate the models’ interpretability. Results The reduced number of features did not result in the drop of AUROC and AUPRC for all machine learning algorithms (P > 0.05). when compared to the ACS-NSQIP scoring system, which achieved a test AUROC of 0.38 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.13–0.73) and 0.22 (95% CI, 0.10–0.36) on the first two tasks, the Compact model showed significantly greater AUROC values nearing or surpassing 0.90. Decision tree-based algorithms demonstrated larger test AUROC than logistic regression and generally agreed on the most influential features for each task. Conclusions Advanced machine learning models have consistently shown greater performance and interpretability over conventional methodologies, implying their potential for a more individualized risk assessment of the aged population. Trial registration Not applicable as this research is not a clinical trial.
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spelling doaj-art-4e1f20cbdb29421ea7790fdb09d660192025-08-20T03:42:57ZengBMCBMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making1472-69472025-07-0125111410.1186/s12911-025-03125-1Prediction of early postoperative complications and transfusion risk after lumbar spinal stenosis surgery in geriatric patients: machine learning approach based on comprehensive geriatric assessmentWounsuk Rhee0Sam Yeol Chang1Bong-Soon Chang2Hyoungmin Kim3Ministry of Health and Welfare, Government of the Republic of KoreaDepartment of Orthopedic Surgery, Seoul National University College of MedicineDepartment of Orthopedic Surgery, Seoul National University College of MedicineHealthcare AI Research Institute, Seoul National University HospitalAbstract Background Lumbar spinal stenosis is one of the most common surgery-requiring conditions of the spine in the aged population. As elderly patients often present with multiple comorbidities and limited physiological reserve, individualized risk assessment using comprehensive geriatric assessment is crucial for optimizing surgical outcomes. Methods Patients 65 years or older who underwent elective surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis between June 2015 and December 2018 were prospectively enrolled, resulting in 261 eligible patients of age 72.3 ± 4.8 years (male 108, female 153). Twenty-seven experienced complications of Clavien-Dindo grade 2 or higher within 30 days, and 79 received transfusion during hospital stay. The cohort was split into train-validation (n = 208) and test (n = 53) sets. A total of 48 features, including demographics, comorbidity, nutrition, and perioperative status, were collected. Logistic regression, support vector machine (SVM), random forest, XGBoost, and LightGBM were trained using five-fold cross-validation. AUROC and AUPRC were considered the primary performance metrics, and the results were compared with those estimated with ACS-NSQIP scoring system. A set of Compact models incorporating a smaller number of features was also trained, and SHAP analysis was conducted to evaluate the models’ interpretability. Results The reduced number of features did not result in the drop of AUROC and AUPRC for all machine learning algorithms (P > 0.05). when compared to the ACS-NSQIP scoring system, which achieved a test AUROC of 0.38 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.13–0.73) and 0.22 (95% CI, 0.10–0.36) on the first two tasks, the Compact model showed significantly greater AUROC values nearing or surpassing 0.90. Decision tree-based algorithms demonstrated larger test AUROC than logistic regression and generally agreed on the most influential features for each task. Conclusions Advanced machine learning models have consistently shown greater performance and interpretability over conventional methodologies, implying their potential for a more individualized risk assessment of the aged population. Trial registration Not applicable as this research is not a clinical trial.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-025-03125-1Lumbar spinal stenosisComprehensive geriatric analysisPostoperative complicationsTransfusionPersonalized medicineArtificial intelligence
spellingShingle Wounsuk Rhee
Sam Yeol Chang
Bong-Soon Chang
Hyoungmin Kim
Prediction of early postoperative complications and transfusion risk after lumbar spinal stenosis surgery in geriatric patients: machine learning approach based on comprehensive geriatric assessment
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
Lumbar spinal stenosis
Comprehensive geriatric analysis
Postoperative complications
Transfusion
Personalized medicine
Artificial intelligence
title Prediction of early postoperative complications and transfusion risk after lumbar spinal stenosis surgery in geriatric patients: machine learning approach based on comprehensive geriatric assessment
title_full Prediction of early postoperative complications and transfusion risk after lumbar spinal stenosis surgery in geriatric patients: machine learning approach based on comprehensive geriatric assessment
title_fullStr Prediction of early postoperative complications and transfusion risk after lumbar spinal stenosis surgery in geriatric patients: machine learning approach based on comprehensive geriatric assessment
title_full_unstemmed Prediction of early postoperative complications and transfusion risk after lumbar spinal stenosis surgery in geriatric patients: machine learning approach based on comprehensive geriatric assessment
title_short Prediction of early postoperative complications and transfusion risk after lumbar spinal stenosis surgery in geriatric patients: machine learning approach based on comprehensive geriatric assessment
title_sort prediction of early postoperative complications and transfusion risk after lumbar spinal stenosis surgery in geriatric patients machine learning approach based on comprehensive geriatric assessment
topic Lumbar spinal stenosis
Comprehensive geriatric analysis
Postoperative complications
Transfusion
Personalized medicine
Artificial intelligence
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-025-03125-1
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