Surgeons too optimistic when they predict back surgery results

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Although surgeons say most patients can expect improvement after back surgery, in fact nearly half get no benefit.
Surgery is one option for patients troubled with sciatica or lower back pain. But it's important they get as accurate a prediction as possible of the possible outcome. A study from doctors at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, now suggests that doctors may talk up the potential results of back surgery to their patients.

The researchers looked at a group of nearly 200 patients undergoing surgery for sciatica or lower back pain. The surgeons responsible said they expected almost 80 per cent to get a great deal of improvement for the procedure. The rest would get at least some benefit.

However, the patients were generally rather less satisfied with the outcome. Over half perceived no obvious improvement a year after surgery. Surgeon expectation only seemed to work with other patients for whom back surgery was not necessarily deemed a good option. In these cases, higher surgeon expectations were linked to better outcomes. When it comes to sciatica and lower back pain, surgeons would, perhaps, do well to align their predictions more with actual clinical data.

Source
Spine 15th June 2005