PREDICTING QUALITY-OF-LIFE AFTER LUMBAR SPONDYLODESIS

Quality of life after spondylodesis was predicted by pretreatment psyc hological variables and findings in a standardized physical examinatio n. Four quality-of-life criteria were used: functional capacity, vocat ional rehabilitation, satisfaction with the outcome of the operation a nd pain intensity recorded in a pain diary. Those of sir presurgery va riables that proved to be associated with the outcome 9 months postsur gery, by means of a multiple stepwise regression procedure, were selec ted for discriminant analyses. The sample consisted of 50 consecutive patients who underwent either ventral (n = 10) or posterolateral (n = 40) spondylodesis with or without posterior instrumentation. Their ave rage age was 44.9 years (SD = 12.9) with an average duration of pain o f 8.6 years (SD = 8.8). Nearly half of the patients had had previous s pine surgery, Follow-up data indicate that about half of the patients show a beneficial outcome in terms of quality-of-life measures. Discri minant analyses suggest that poor presurgical functional capacity and an unclear finding in the physical examination before surgery contribu te to our knowledge about patients who are likely to show continuous p ain and poor functional capacity after surgery.