For committed surgeons, what defines success extends beyond the goings-on of the operating room. While technical precision still matters, outcomes are increasingly being measured by how quickly patients resume their lives as normal, how they feel and whether their expectations are truly met.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What does a great outcome look like to you — beyond just a successful surgery?
Maya Babu, MD. Neurosurgeon at Surgical Affiliates Management Group (Sacramento, Calif.): A patient who can get back to doing things that he or she loves. For instance, caring for children or grandchildren, going hiking, gardening or being able to spend time with family without discomfort
Justin Bundy, MD. Spine Specialist and Orthopedic Surgeon at Georgia Carolina Orthopedics (Augusta, Ga.): Successful outcomes are achieved when both the surgeon’s and the patient’s expectations are met. For the surgeon, this means accomplishing goals such as decompression, alignment or stability and leaving the operating room confident in those results. For the patient, it means improved function, pain relief and a return to the life they desire, together defining a successful outcome.
Jonathan Clabeaux, MD. Orthopedic Surgeon at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (Tacoma, Wash.): A great outcome goes beyond a successful technical procedure to include restored confidence, emotional resilience and a return to cherished daily activities.
It is characterized by active patient engagement, comprehensive rehabilitation and the proactive rebuilding of physical, mental and social vitality. The patient has a restored quality of life and takes an active role in their recovery. The patient needs support during recovery to reduce anxiety and find resilience. Full recovery requires not only the patient and physician, but the entire care team and the patient’s social support system.
Stuart Fischer, MD. Orthopedic Surgeon at Summit (N.J.) Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine: A great outcome is a happy patient and happy family. It’s so wonderful to hear how something you have done has made a meaningful difference in someone’s life. Your happiest patients aren’t always the ones who have the best results, and sometimes, your best outcomes aren’t always the happiest patients. So it’s special to know that someone is pain free and can do something after surgery that they couldn’t do before! Hearing it from the patient and seeing it happen is an orthopedic surgeon’s greatest reward!
Nitin Khanna, MD. Minimally Invasive Spine Surgeon at Spine Care Specialists (Munster, Ind.): A great outcome should be focused on the patient having a great experience. This includes the surgical team ensuring the patient’s questions have been answered, expectations have been set and their care feels seamless. An X-ray showing excellent instrumentation positioning alone is no longer sufficient to judge outcomes.
Philip Louie, MD. Spine Surgeon and Medical Director of Research and Academics at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (Seattle): In my mind, a great outcome isn’t always a surgery, but more so the patient who never needed one because we caught the problem early, guided them through the right non-surgical pathway and got them back to living.
When surgery is the answer, the win is watching someone who has restored function, returned to enjoyable activities and trusts that the system worked FOR them. That full arc and spectrum of care is the most important: the right care, at the right time, by the right team.
Paul McAfee, MD. Director of the Scoliosis and Spine Center of Maryland (Baltimore): It’s all about a faster return to function in spinal deformity. There are standout cases, like a patient who led mountain climbing expeditions on all seven continents, another who won the Head of the Charles sculling race three years in a row after a four-level fusion and one who made it to the Olympics in kayaking. But just as important is the “average” teenage girl who can attend her homecoming dance in an open-backed dress six weeks after scoliosis surgery, happy with her back’s contour, her incision and free to enjoy herself.
Minimally invasive surgery isn’t just percutaneous techniques; with advanced robotics, navigation, and improved fixation, we can achieve strong correction while fusing fewer vertebral levels, making it less invasive than past approaches requiring bracing or casts. Ultimately, the best outcome is when a patient’s function exceeds their own expectations, as well as those of their family and surgeon.
Rory Murphy, MD. Neurosurgeon at Barrow Neurological Institute (Phoenix): A great outcome means achieving a patient’s goals and putting them back in control of their condition, with results that are durable and long-lasting. It’s not just about a successful surgery, but about restoring independence, function and confidence in everyday life.
Emeka Nwodim, MD. Orthopedic and Spine Surgeon at The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics (Bethesda, Md.): A great outcome is less defined by surgery itself and more by a patient’s overall result. If symptoms improve and quality of life is enhanced, whether it be through counseling, education, nonoperative management or surgery, the key question remains: is the patient better than before?
Brandon Ortega, MD. Orthopedic Spine Surgeon at Long Beach (Calif.) Lakewood Orthopedic Institute: A great outcome is more than decompressing a nerve root, more than restoring lordosis, more than preserving motion. Those are the technical benchmarks, and they matter, but they’re not what I carry with me.
A great outcome is when a patient walks into my clinic with tears of joy because they were finally able to return to work and provide for their family. It’s when they pull out their phone to show me pictures of themselves hiking down to their favorite fishing spot. It’s when they can board a long international flight without pain to visit family they haven’t seen in years. It’s when they walk into Sunday church service without a walker and their friends and family tell them they look ten years younger.
These are just a few examples, every patient has their own version of what it means to get their life back. And that, ultimately, is the reason so many of us chose this profession in the first place.
Tushar Patel, MD. Orthopedic Spine Surgeon at District Ortho (Chevy Chase, Md.): A great outcome is a heartfelt smile and sparkle in the patient’s eyes when I see them post-op. It means that they’re back to doing what they want to do and are grateful for the surgery.
Suken Shah, MD. Chair of Orthopedic Surgery at Nemours Children’s Hospital (Wilmington, Del.): A great outcome, everybody knows it when they see it, but it is hard to define. More than just a successful surgery, I think our greatest outcomes occur in medically complex patients for whom a multidisciplinary team has come together well before the surgery to mitigate co-morbidities, optimize health preoperatively and properly plan the surgery with alternate plans and bailouts.
Then, this team delivers high quality, quaternary perioperative surgical care safely and with empathy and compassion that outmatch, even the family’s expectations. This holistic care delivery, even with social and rehabilitation disposition addressed, can prevent some complications in our high-risk patients. That is a great outcome!
Li Sun, DO. Orthopedic Spine Surgeon at Sun Orthopaedic and Spine Care (Matawan, N.J.): Some of the most rewarding surgeries I’ve performed have actually been among the simplest in spine surgery. One patient I treated while on call many years ago sent me a holiday card every year and eventually made a donation to the hospital. She was in her late nineties when I performed a minimally invasive laminectomy, and she was able to walk out of the hospital the next day.
Another patient came to me for a second opinion after being misdiagnosed with low back pain for more than 20 years. I performed a minimally invasive sacroiliac joint fusion, and she fully recovered within eight weeks. She came to the office in tears because, for the first time in two decades, she could perform daily activities without any low back pain.
Sean Sutphen, DO. Orthopedic Surgeon at Illinois Bone and Joint Institute (Des Plaines): A great outcome beyond a successful surgery means the patient goes through the surgical process and comes out on the other side with improved psychological well-being, restored independence and resumption of an active lifestyle. The ability to change the patient’s attitude to a positive outlook for the future is what it’s all about. That is what creates an exceptional outcome.
John Uribe, MD. Chief Medical Executive of Orthopedic Surgery at Baptist Health Orthopedic Care (Miami): To me, a great outcome is patient-centered and time-dependent. A question I like to ask, and one I find statistically relevant for joint surgery, is: before surgery, what percent of a normal joint is it today, and after surgery, at the appropriate timeframe, what percent of normal is it now? I feel this captures both function and pain. A great outcome, to me, is anything above 85%, particularly after more than two years.
Jeffrey Wang, MD. Chief of Orthopedic Spine Service and Co-Director of the Spine Center at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles): Everyone defines success differently, but I look at the entire patient experience and reflect on the full interaction.
It’s not just about having an X-ray that looks great or showing patients that their anatomical issue has been corrected, though that is an important part of success. For me, it also means ensuring the patient is happy, had a positive experience with me, my staff, and the hospital and feels better with improvement in their preoperative symptoms. A happy patient represents the best measure of success and often leads to referrals from friends and acquaintances.
David Weiner, MD. Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at MedStar Health (Columbia, Md.): A great outcome is multifactorial and best defined when all stakeholders benefit, the patient, the surgeon and the healthcare system. For the patient, it goes beyond a technically successful, complication-free operation. It includes durable relief of preoperative symptoms, restoration of function and meeting or exceeding patient expectations.
For the surgeon, a great outcome reflects the execution of a high-quality, evidence-based procedure. It involves sound intraoperative judgment, efficient technique and the professional satisfaction that comes from achieving a result aligned with both clinical objectives and patient goals.
What is becoming ever more important is the outcome for the healthcare system. A great outcome represents value. This means delivering excellent results with appropriate resource utilization, minimizing length of stay, readmissions and downstream costs, while maintaining strong patient-reported outcomes and satisfaction. When these elements align, the outcome is not only successful in the operating room, but durable, reproducible and meaningful across the entire continuum of care.
Aqib Zehri, MD. Neurosurgeon at The Oregon Clinic (Portland): A great outcome goes beyond technical success; it’s about how well we restore a patient’s function, alignment and overall quality of life in a way that lasts.
In spine surgery, that means thoughtfully matching the right operation to the patient’s specific condition and goals, using less invasive approaches when appropriate, while still being able to address more complex pathology when needed. Ultimately, success is when patients regain their independence and get back to the activities that matter most to them.
Jason Zook, MD. Orthopedic Spine Surgeon at EmergeOrtho (Morganton, N.C.): A great outcome centers on a patient’s satisfaction with their surgery. Beyond technical proficiency, I feel it is more important to establish a good rapport with your patient, set expectations appropriately then follow through with your plan. My greatest professional satisfaction and barometer of success is when a patient thanks me in their follow up visit. I treasure this far beyond a nice radiograph.
At the Becker's 23rd Annual Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC + The Future of Spine Conference, taking place June 11-13 in Chicago, spine surgeons, orthopedic leaders and ASC executives will come together to explore minimally invasive techniques, ASC growth strategies and innovations shaping the future of outpatient spine care. Apply for complimentary registration now.
