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OBJECTIVE We systematically reviewed the literature to compare risk factors for postoperative complications at the surgical wound site in primary and metastatic tumor operations. METHODS We screened English-language publications on the outcomes of primary and metastatic spinal tumor operations. Pooled analyses and meta-analyses with random effects modeling were performed comparing patients with and without wound complications, which were defined as surgical site infection or sterile wound dehiscence. RESULTS Our query identified 5,471 unique citations, from which we included 23 studies describing 5,104 patients. 1,936 patients underwent surgery for primary tumors with a wound complication rate of 8.1%. Subgroup analysis of benign and malignant primary tumors yielded significantly different wound complication rates of 7.8% and 26.9% respectively. The metastatic tumor cohort included 3,168 patients and a complication rate of 6.6%. In a pooled analysis of primary tumors, higher wound complication rates were associated with sacral operations and the use of instrumentation. In the metastatic tumor cohort, higher complication rates were associated with female sex, smoking history, preoperative chemotherapy, preoperative radiotherapy, corticosteroid use, and previous spine surgery. Instrumentation remained a statistically significant risk factor for primary tumors with the addition of random effects meta-analysis. CONCLUSION Risk factors for wound complications after primary tumor operations were related to tumor histology and the spinal location of the operation. Risk factors for metastatic tumors may be related to a number of systemic preoperative treatments and baseline comorbidities. Random effects meta-analysis demonstrated the limited generalizability of these findings due to a small, heterogenous primary literature.