Multimodal Deep Learning-based Radiomics Approach for Predicting Surgical Outcomes in Patients with Cervical Ossification of the Posterior Longitudinal Ligament.

Study design: A retrospective analysis.

Objective: This research sought to develop a predictive model for surgical outcomes in patients with cervical ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) using deep learning and machine learning (ML) techniques.

Summary of background data: Determining surgical outcomes assists surgeons in communicating prognosis to patients and setting their expectations. Deep learning and ML are computational models that identify patterns from large data sets and make predictions.

Methods: Of the 482 patients, 288 patients were included in the analysis. A minimal clinically important difference (MCID) was defined as gain in Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score of 2.5 points or more. The predictive model for MCID achievement at 1 year postsurgery was constructed using patient background, clinical symptoms, and preoperative imaging features (x-ray, CT, MRI) analyzed through LightGBM and deep learning with RadImagenet.

Results: The median preoperative JOA score was 11.0 (IQR: 9.0-12.0), which significantly improved to 14.0 (IQR: 12.0-15.0) at 1 year after surgery ( P < 0.001, Wilcoxon signed-rank test). The average improvement rate of the JOA score was 44.7%, and 60.1% of patients achieved the MCID. Our model exhibited an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.81 and the accuracy of 71.9% in predicting MCID at 1 year. Preoperative JOA score and certain preoperative imaging features were identified as the most significant factors in the predictive models.

Conclusion: A predictive ML and deep learning model for surgical outcomes in OPLL patients is feasible, suggesting promising applications in spinal surgery.

Level of evidence: 4.