ArticleNeurospine2026
The MSI-20 Score Provides Reproducible Mortality Risk Stratification in Spinal Infection: A Multicenter Registry Study and External Validation.
Article in Neurospine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
27 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveSpinal infection (SI) is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, and optimal treatment strategies remain debated, particularly in medically fragile patients. The Mortality in Spinal Infection (MSI-20) score was developed as the first dedicated prognostic tool for mortality risk estimation, but external validation in large cohorts has been lacking. This study aimed to externally validate the MSI-20 in a large multicenter registry cohort and assess its performance, clinical thresholds, and generalizability.
methodsThis retrospective multi-institutional registry study included 1,122 adult patients with clinically, radiologically, and laboratory-confirmed SI treated at 6 tertiary referral centers between 2010 and 2023. The multicenter registry design enabled robust analysis of this relatively rare outcome. MSI-20 scores were calculated according to the original definition. Predictive performance was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis with 95% confidence intervals. Mortality across score strata and center-wise performance were analyzed, with exploratory assessment of additional baseline predictors.
resultsMean age was 66.4±13.1 years, and overall mortality was 18.3%. The MSI-20 demonstrated fair discriminative ability (area under the curve [AUC], 0.68; 95% confidence interval [CI], 64-72). The optimal ROC threshold was 3.5; a cutoff ≥4 yielded sensitivity 0.49 and specificity 0.74 (F1 score, 0.38). Mortality increased progressively, approaching 50% (47.4%) at scores ≥9. Performance was consistent across centers (AUC, 0.60-0.75). Exploratory univariable analyses did not identify additional baseline variables with consistent strong associations beyond the MSI-20 components.
conclusionThis large multicenter registry study provides the first external validation of the MSI-20, confirming reproducibility and generalizability. The score demonstrated fair discrimination and a clear risk gradient across increasing score categories. Given its simplicity and high negative predictive value, the MSI-20 may serve as an adjunctive tool to support risk communication, multidisciplinary discussion, patient counseling, and preoperative optimization in spinal infection.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.