Background: The evaluation of patients presenting with spinal metastatic disease is often challenging. The Tokuhashi scale intends to facilitate this process. We conducted this study to investigate its clinical utility in surgical-decision making in patients with spinal metastasis. Methods: The oncology database was used to allocate 285 patients with spinal metastasis between 2010 and 2015. The Tokuhashi scale components were determined from a chart review. Results: Based on the Tokuhashi scale, there was 69.1% in the non-operative/radiation group (group 1), 23.2% in the palliative/excisional surgical group (group2) and 7.7% in the surgical group (group 3). Using Kaplan-Meiers estimate, survival time was significantly different across the three groups with means 232.8±30.8, 352.3±49.2 and 568.3±206.1 days, respectively. A significantly higher proportion of patients (84.6%) were treated non-surgically in group 1, compared to 45.5% in group 3 (X2=19.5, P<0.001). However, there was no correlation between the type of surgical interventions (i.e. instrumented decompression, decompression alone, percutaneous vertebral augmentation and instrumented vertebral augmentation) and the Tokuhashi score. Conclusions: This review illustrates the utility of the Tokuhashi scale in predicting survival. However, it does not address the new role of emerging different surgical strategies for the treatment of spinal metastasis and lacks information concerning spinal instability.
Clinical Utility of Targeted Radiofrequency Ablation in Spinal Metastatic Disease