THE PREVALENCE AND BOTHERSOMENESS OF COMPLICATIONS AFTER SPINAL SURGERY: THE VIEW FROM THE PATIENT’S SIDE

Abstract

Introduction: Recent years have witnessed something of a paradigm shift in relation to the assessment of outcome in spine surgery: multidimensional patient-centred questionnaires have superseded the traditional surgeon-based rating of global outcome, and surgical registries have been developed to capitalise on the principle of “strength in numbers”. Interestingly, although recognised as a potential determinant of the patient’s view of the success of the surgery, the assessment of complications — in this context defined as new or unexpected problems arising as a result of surgery — has not enjoyed the same enlightened approach in relation to the patient’s perspective. The present study sought to fill this gap in the current array of outcome measures.

Methods: All German-speaking patients undergoing spinal surgery within our Spine Unit in the two years from Jan 2005 to Dec 2006 were asked to complete the patient-orientated Core-Measures-Index of the SSE Spine Tango Spine Surgery Registry 12 mo after surgery; the surgeon completed a Spine Tango surgery form and follow-up forms at various intervals up to 12 mo postop. In the patient questionnaire, the patient was asked “did any complications arise as a consequence of your operation 1 year ago (e.g. problems with wound healing, paralysis, sensory disturbances, etc.)? If so, give details.” Patients were also asked about their satisfaction with the operation and the global outcome of surgery.

Results: 2080/2259 (92%) patients returned a 12-month questionnaire. 28% patients answered “yes” to the complications question. This compares with complication rates of 3–10% recorded during the various Spine Tango Surgical follow-ups up to 12 months post-op. Patients sometimes listed “complications” that would rarely classify as such in the traditional sense; however, the incidence of their reported complications was significantly associated with outcome/satisfaction, suggesting they were not trivial to the patient. The more recent addition of a question concerning the “bothersomeness” of the reported complications revealed that 6% patients thought the complications were not at all bothersome; 21%, slightly bothersome; 30%, moderately bothersome; 27%, very bothersome and 16%, extremely bothersome.

Discussion: The results indicate that, just like outcome, “complications” should be assessed from both the patient’s and the surgeon’s perspectives, not least to better understand the reasons accounting for dissatisfaction and a poor patient-rated outcome.