At the North American Spine Society annual meeting, physicians presented their study on patient versus physician expectations following lumbar spine surgery.
Researchers surveyed patients from five spine surgeons, addressing symptoms, physical function and psychological well-being, 10 days prior to undergoing surgery. Surgeons completed an identical survey, rating expected improvement for each patient. Concordance within the patient-surgeon pair was measured
with the intraclass correlation coefficient.
Two years after surgery, patients completed the postoperative survey, measuring actual improvement and whether patient expectations had been fulfilled. Here's what researchers discovered:
1. Eight-six percent of patients had greater expectations than their surgeons. The mean preoperative survey score was 74 for patients and 58 for surgeons, and the intraclass correlations coefficient was 0.36, indicating fair agreement.
2. The proportion of expectations fulfilled for patients was 0.75 plus or minus .037 and 0.94 plus or minus 0.41 for surgeons. The proportion was perfect for 27 percent of patients' and 53 percent of surgeons' ratings.
3. Researchers found surgeons' conclusions more closely predicted actual improved with surgeons successfully predicting more than 66 percent of expectation fulfillment.
4. These findings provide an opening to ensure patients retain surgeons' counsel about expectations throughout the preoperative process. Surgeons can go forward working openly and honestly with patients on realistic expectations.