According to a study published in Neurosurgery on August 15, researchers have identified several factors that influence patients’ perception of success following spinal degeneration surgery, whether cervical or lumbar, which should therefore be taken into account when planning surgery.
1-Spine degeneration severity: Patients starting from a severe baseline in terms of pain and functional disability are unlikely to experience significant improvement, as the extent of degeneration is substantial and results in perceived improvements of less than 15%, leading patients to feel the surgery was “unsatisfactory”.
2-Depression & anxiety: Patients with preoperative depression or anxiety have a lower likelihood of perceiving the surgery as successful.
3-Socioeconomic status: Similarly, in the U.S. system, patients enrolled in Medicaid or those without insurance also had lower odds of reporting postoperative improvement. In Spain, a rough equivalent might be patients relying on welfare or with limited resources. In any case, socioeconomic status appears to affect postoperative outcomes.
Source: Neurosurgery, August 2015
