ASSESSING SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM RECOVERY FROM LUMBAR SURGERY WITH PREOPERATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL, MEDICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL VARIABLES

Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the joint associat ion between biographical, medical and pre-operative psychological vari ables on the one hand, and a range of short-and long-term psychologica l and disorder-specific outcome measures on the other hand, in patient s undergoing lumbar surgery. Design. Canonical correlations were used to determine which groups of pre-operative variables were related to g roups of outcome measures. Methods. Participants were 126 patients und ergoing lumbar surgery. On the day before surgery, information was obt ained regarding age, sex, medical status variables, anxiety, fatigue, indices of pain and coping. Three days and three months post-operative ly, several aspects of recovery were measured. Results. Female sex, nu mber of analgesics taken, expected poor recovery according to the neur osurgeon, and pre-operative anxiety were associated with poorer short- term recovery. Reoperation, pre-operative anxiety, fatigue and pain du ring daily activities were associated with poorer long-term recovery. Conclusions. The results suggest that the assessment of recovery after surgery might be improved by taking psychological variables into acco unt, apart from biographical and medical variables. Checking patients' levels of pre-operative anxiety, fatigue and pain might help hospital staff to detect patients who may be at risk of poor recovery in the l ong run. Applying psychological intervention techniques aimed at anxie ty, fatigue and pain may facilitate recovery in such patients.