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Article summary:

1. A meta-analysis was conducted to explore risk factors of surgical site infection (SSI) following spinal surgery.

2. 26 studies were included in the final analysis, with a rate of SSI after spinal surgery being 2.9%.

3. Factors associated with increased risk of SSI after spinal surgery include fusion approach, osteotomy, transfusion, a history of diabetes and surgery, hypertension, surgical location, osteoporosis and the number of fusion levels.

Article analysis:

The article is generally reliable and trustworthy as it provides an extensive search of literature from multiple databases in both English and Chinese language. The data analysis was also conducted using appropriate software such as RevMan 5.3 and STATA 12.0 which are commonly used for meta-analyses. Furthermore, the authors have declared that they have no funding or conflicts of interest to disclose which adds to the credibility of the article.

However, there are some potential biases that should be noted when interpreting the results from this study. Firstly, only 26 studies were included in the final analysis which may not be sufficient to draw definitive conclusions about all risk factors for SSI following spinal surgery. Secondly, some factors such as age, sex and BMI were not found to be associated with increased risk of SSI but these findings may be limited by small sample sizes or other confounding variables that were not taken into account in this study. Finally, there is a lack of discussion regarding possible risks associated with certain interventions such as transfusions or use of steroids which could potentially lead to bias in interpretation of results if these risks are not taken into consideration when making clinical decisions based on this study's findings.