Patient Satisfaction with Spine Surgery Reported

The SpineUniverse patient survey, Chronic Back Pain in America 2015 asked participants, who underwent spine surgery, questions related to their surgical experience and postoperative care. To help put the statistics into perspective, out of a total of 606 people who took the survey, about 46% or 278 self-reported having a spine surgery procedure.
Survey participants were asked several general questions about their postoperative experience.It is important to bear in mind that the statistical information presented here is reflective only of the results of the SpineUniverse survey—which are small compared to the 450,000+ surgical spine procedures performed each year.

Table 1 (below) summarizes when and where surgery was performed. A total of 223 responses were provided.

Table 2 (below) summarizes by spine level what types of complications—if any, were experienced during or after spine surgery. Although approximately half did not have any surgical complications, some patients responding to this question may have had more than one problem during and/or after spine surgery. The survey did not match up surgical procedures to self-reported complications.

Postoperative Experience
Toward the end of the survey, survey participants were asked several general questions about their postoperative experience, such as the number of days hospitalized (if any). Of course, the number of days a patient may be hospitalized is based on many factors, including his/her general health and type of surgical spine procedure(s) planned. In the results of the SpineUniverse survey, 25% of 217 patients reported spending 4 or more days in the hospital. Table 3 (below) provides additional information.

• Referring again to the 217 patients, 93% (n=201) indicated their surgeon provided written instructions about surgical wound care, activities to avoid or limit, pain medication, and diet.

Table 4 (below) summarizes how soon and approximately the percentage and number of patients (based on a total of 217) received physical therapy (or rehabilitation) as part of their spine surgery aftercare.

How did some patients rate their pain levels 3 months after surgery?
SpineUniverse provided patients 11 different pain descriptions from which to make one choice. The rating scale started with no pain and graduated upward to worst pain imaginable. Table 5 (below) provides more detail of how the 217 patients measured their pain using our scale.

How many patients were satisfied with their surgical outcome? Table 6 (below) summarizes the feedback from 217 patients.