Table 3.

Demographics of Patients Undergoing Lumbar Fusion or Nonoperative Treatment Within the Medicare Database^a.

Variable	Number of Patients With Lumbar Degeneration	Fusion Cases			Nonoperative Cases
		Number	Incidence	P Value	Number	Incidence	P Value
Sex
Female	3 250 736	180 428	5.6		1 203 697	37.0
Male	2 072 078	134 398	6.5		678 944	32.8
				.7325			<.0001
US geographical region
Midwest	1 489 858	76 493	5.1		612 757	41.1
Northeast	845 641	38 140	4.5		311 374	36.8
South	2 140 384	144 656	6.8		711 354	33.2
West	846 931	55 537	6.6		247 156	29.2
				<.0001			<.0001
Age
<65 years	998 153	68 788	6.9		296 817	29.7
65-69 years	1 153 474	99 579	8.6		420 897	36.5
70-74 years	950 797	67 098	7.1		351 956	37.0
75-79 years	879 393	48 091	5.5		330 408	37.6
80-84 years	721 918	23 723	3.3		267 123	37.0
>84 years	619 079	7547	1.2		215 440	34.8
				<.0001			<.0001
Year of procedure
2006	1 018 583	54 624	5.4		389 878	38.3
2007	932 969	48 898	5.2		338 540	36.3
2008	790 015	46 983	5.9		296 423	37.5
2009	849 780	52 016	6.1		295 000	34.7
2010	841 261	55 535	6.6		277 651	33.0
2011	890 206	56 770	6.4		285 149	32.0
				.0595			<.0001
Total	5 322 814	314 826	5.9		1 882 641	35.4

^aIncidence (per 100 patients).