FACT SHEET: American Spine Registry Releases First Annual Report

ROSEMONT, Ill. (February 20, 2025)—The American Spine Registry (ASR), an unprecedented partnership between the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), released its first edition Annual Report today. The report, which reviewed procedures performed between 2015 and 2023, offers trends to guide physicians and patient decision making to improve spine care.

Insights include:

• Lumbar Module – ASR has collected data on 230,159 lumbar spine procedures. Posterior lumbar interbody fusion and transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion is the most frequently captured procedure at 32.3% of cases, followed by laminectomy or posterior decompression and other decompressions (29.6%), and posterior lumbar fusion (28.7%).
• Cervical Module – ASR has collected data on 112,683 cervical spine procedures. The procedure category with the most captured procedures is anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) which accounts for 63.2% of procedures. Posterior fusion follows ACDF for most procedures at 23.8% followed by posterior laminectomy at 7.8%. The top three reported cervical diagnoses include spinal stenosis (57.8%), radiculopathy (42.3%) and myelopathy (35.7%).
• Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) – PROMs collection and analysis is a high-value component that will continue to play an integral part in healthcare quality improvement. ASR collects PROMs and encourages sites to submit this data at set intervals: a baseline measure obtained prior to surgery, a measure 90-days post-discharge and at one-year postoperatively.

ASR Growth
While the report features data submitted in 2023, by the end of 2024, 318 institutions were submitting data to the ASR from across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This represents a 5.65% increase in institutions and a 17.86% increase in procedures from the previous year.

Why It Matters
Degenerative spine disease is a pervasive health issue, causing significant pain, disability and healthcare costs. Traditional methods of assessing the quality of spine care have often relied on limited data sources, making it difficult to identify best practices and measure outcomes. The ASR has emerged as a powerful tool for driving innovation and improving patient outcomes.

To read and download the complete ASR 2025 Annual Report, visit the ASR website. Slides with facts and figures from the report can be found here.