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Married patients respond more favorably to operative treatment for intervertebral disc herniation
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Patients who are married tend to have higher improvement scores after undergoing discectomy surgery for intervertebral disc herniation, according to a study pulished in Spine.
Of 1192 patients in the study who either had discectomy surgeries or received nonoperative care, those patients who had the surgery to treat intervertebral disc herniation (IDH) improved significantly more than the control group, according to the abstract.
On a 100-point disability scale, multivariate analysis of the surgery group revealed that certain variables, such as being married, having no joint problems and having worsening symptoms were positively correlated with affecting improvement. Married patients with worsening symptoms had the greatest improvement after surgery compared to single patients with stable symptoms.
In addition, variables such as old age, having a high school education or less, having no worker’s compensation and having a longer duration of symptoms were also associated with greater treatment effectiveness through univariate analysis.
Researchers analyzed data from the Spine Outcomes Research Trial over a 4-year period. As no prior studies had examined the effectiveness of treatments for IDH, the results could be used to predict how effective surgery would be in patients with IDH, the authors wrote.
Reference:
- Pearson A, Lurie J, Tosteson T, et al. Who should have surgery for an intervertebral disc herniation?: Comparative effectiveness evidence from the spine patient outcomes research trial. Spine. 2012; 37:2:140-149. doi:10.1097/BRS.0b013e3182276b2b.
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