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Patients perceive spine surgery as less successful than other orthopaedic surgery, study finds
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 Y. Raja Rampersaud |
GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Of the most common musculoskeletal surgical procedures, Canadian patients seen at one hospital were least willing to undergo spine surgery and most willing to undergo hip surgery, according to results of a study which involved a prospective cohort of 743 patients referred to Toronto Western Hospital in Toronto, Canada for evaluation.
In the study, 68% of spine patients perceived spine surgery as successful. By comparison, 84% of hip patients and 82% of shoulder and elbow patients perceived hip surgeries and shoulder and elbow surgeries as successful, respectively.
Among the patients — nearly equal numbers of men and women — 293 (39%) were seen for a spine condition and all were being evaluated for elective procedures. In addition to the spine, their conditions involved the hip, knee, shoulder/elbow or foot and ankle, according to Y. Raja Rampersaud, MD, who presented the findings during a special poster session at the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine Annual Meeting 2011, here.
“Our result is basically the top three concerns of patients were complications, success and postoperative recovery after surgery. When we look at this further with regard to perception of risk, surgery patients were most concerned of high risk and uncertainty in the spine cohort and least concerned in the hip replacement cohort, as you may gather,” he said.
Twenty percent of patients were concerned about surgical complications, 15% of patients were concerned about the effectiveness of surgery and another 15% were concerned about the length of time of recovery.
At the outset of the study, Rampersaud and colleagues collected demographic data from patients in the orthopaedic division-wide study and had them complete the SF-36 quality of life instrument, the Charlson comorbidity index, and a subjective survey addressing perception of surgical risk to get an idea of the patients’ willingness to undergo a surgical intervention if it was offered by their orthopaedic surgeon.
In other results from the study, ethnicity was another key factor for consideration.
“Asians and blacks, compared to whites, were less willing to undergo surgery with an odds ratio for Asians of 2.8 and black patients of 3.2, and bodily pain was also another factor. The higher their pain score, the more willing they were to consider surgery,” Rampersaud said, noting that the findings highlight the importance of patient education and addressing ethnic differences when proposing orthopaedic surgery.
Reference:
- Rampersaud YR, Gandhi R, Hudak P, et al. Patient concerns about undergoing elective musculoskeletal surgery. Paper #SP28. Presented at the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine Annual Meeting 2011. June 14-18. Gothenburg, Sweden.
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