Global spine journal
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Global spine journal · Oct 2015
ReviewThe Relationship between Preoperative Expectations and the Short-Term Postoperative Satisfaction and Functional Outcome in Lumbar Spine Surgery: A Systematic Review.
Study Design Systematic review. Objective To examine the relationship between the patient's preoperative expectations and short-term postoperative satisfaction and functional outcome in lumbar spine surgery. Methods The Medline, Embase, and Cochrane databases were queried using a predefined search algorithm to identify all lumbar spine studies analyzing the influence of preoperative expectations on postoperative satisfaction and functional outcome. ⋯ Conclusions on the influence of the expectations for pain were limited due to the study heterogeneity, but the evidence suggests a positive correlation between the expectation and outcome for back and leg pain. Conclusions Positive expectations correlated significantly with short-term postoperative satisfaction and functional outcome, including higher SF-36 scores, earlier return to work, and decreased ODI scores. Future expectation-based investigations will benefit from implementation of the standardized methods of expectation, satisfaction, and outcome analysis discussed herein.