Perioperative Outcomes of Spring-Assisted Cranioplasty, Distraction Osteogenesis Versus Conventional Expansion in Craniosynostosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Objectives This study compares perioperative outcomes between spring-assisted cranioplasty (SAC), distraction osteogenesis (DO) and conventional expansion in craniosynostosis surgery. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Setting Retrospective and prospective cohort. Patients and Participants A comprehensive electronic search was conducted using PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Science Direct, EBSCO, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, alongside Gray literature sources (SSRN, Scopus preprint, and MedRxiv). Publication bias was assessed and study quality was evaluated using the Newcastle Ottawa Scales (NOS). Interventions SAC or DO. Main Outcome Measures Blood loss and blood transfusion. Results Thirteen studies were included, with 7 studies comparing DO versus conventional and 6 comparing SAC vs conventional. All studies met eligibility criteria for meta-analysis, with study quality ranged from good to very good. Compared to conventional, the SAC or DO significantly reduced blood loss (MD = −190.42 mL), and blood transfusion (MD = −227.22). Additionally, SAC and DO shorten operative time (MD = −94.38 min), anesthesia duration (MD = −114.81 min), hospital stay (MD = −0.68 days), and ICU stay (MD = −1.00 days). Long-term follow-up showed a lower reoperation rate (OR = 0.20), but no significant change in cranial index at 10 years (MD = 0.06, P = .74). Conclusions SAC or DO result in lower perioperative complications, overall shorter durations, and reduced reoperation rates compared to conventional expansion. Standardized postoperative outcome reports are useful to classify the severity of complications and guide the future long-term treatment strategies for craniosynostosis surgery.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.010 | 0.023 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.018 | 0.035 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.008 | 0.007 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".