Introduction: Although decompressive surgery of spinal stenosis is a common procedure in spine surgery, there are no studies assessing patients’ perceived health related quality of life (HRQOL) by EQ-5D. An objective was to describe status overall and by analyzing pre- and one year postoperative health related quality of life (HRQOL) by the EQ-5D instrument in patients operated on for lumbar spinal stenosis. This cohort was compared to a Swedish population EQ-5D survey.

Methods: Data were obtained from the National Swed-ish Registry for lumbar spine operations 2001–2002. On 230 patients (mean age 66 years, 53% females) operated on for lumbar spinal stenosis the primary outcome measures were pre- and postoperative EQ-5D data. In addition, patient and disease characteristics (pain and walking ability) were reported. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed and the relative differences pre-and postoperatively compared to a Swedish population survey were calculated.

Results: The majority of patients experienced an improved and their EQ-5D score increased from 0.36 to 0.64 one year after operation. However, they did not reach the level reported by an age- and gender matched population sample (mean difference 0.18). Woman had lower pre- and postoperatively EQ-5D scores than men. Preoperative severe pain was a significant predictor for a lower postoperative EQ-5D score. Four out of ten reported considerable improvement while a similar portion of patients (41%) with high preoperative scores were slightly improved. A third group (14%) were unchanged with low EQ-5D scores, and a few (4%) perceived a decline in their HRQOL. The mean VAS rating of leg- and back pain improved one year after operation by 28 and 29 %, respectively. The proportion of patients able to walk longer than 500 m increased from 25 % preoperatively to 65 % postoperatively.

Conclusions: Our national Swedish representatively cohort of disc herniation patients has a remarkable low EQ-5D scores preoperatively. However their HRQOL improved considerably in 80 % of the patients one year after surgery. The health related quality of life improves after surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis, approaching the population reference level. It is of most importance to further investigate the risk factors behind the less favourable outcomes in health related quality of live (EQ-5D score) in women.

We investigated the pre-operative and one-year post-operative health-related quality of life (HRQoL) outcome by using a Euroqol (EQ-5D) questionnaire in 230 patients who underwent surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis. Data were obtained from the National Swedish Registry for operations on the lumbar spine between 2001 and 2002. We analysed the pre- and postoperative quality of life data, age, gender, smoking habits, pain and walking ability. The relative differences were compared to a Swedish EQ-5D population survey.

The mean age of the patients was 66 years, and there were 123 females (53%). Before the operation 62 (27%) of the patients could walk more than 500 m. One year after the operation 150 (65%) were able to walk 500 m or more.

The mean EQ-5D score improved from 0.36 to 0.64, and the HRQoL improved in 184 (80%) of the patients. However, they did not reach the level reported by a matched population sample (mean difference 0.18). Women had lower pre- and post-operative EQ-5D scores than men. Severe low back pain was a predictor for a poor outcome.

We investigated the pre-operative and one-year post-operative health-related quality of life (HRQOL) outcome by using a Euroqol (EQ-5D) questionnaire in 263 patients who had undergone surgery for herniation of a lumbar disc. Data from the National Swedish Register for lumbar spinal surgery between 2001 and 2002 were used and, in addition, a comparison between our cohort and a Swedish EQ-5D population survey was performed. We analysed the pre- and post-operative quality of life data, age, gender, smoking habits, pain and walking capacity.

The mean age of the patients was 42 years (20 to 66); 155 (59%) were men and 69 (26%) smoked. Pre-operatively, 72 (17%) could walk at least 1 km compared with 200 (76%) postoperatively.

The mean EQ-5D score improved from 0.29 to 0.70, and the HRQOL improved in 195 (74%) of the patients. The pre-operative score did not influence the post-operative score. In most patients, all five EQ-5D dimensions improved, but did not reach the level reported by an age- and gender-matched population sample (mean difference 0.17). Predictors for poor outcome were smoking, a short pre-operative walking distance, and a long history of back pain.

The National Inpatient Register and the Swedish Death Register were linked to determine the incidence of surgical intervention, the trends and characteristics of the patients, the death rate and the pre- and post-operative admissions for herniation of a lumbar disc based on comprehensive national data between 1987 and 1999.

There were 27 576 operations which were followed cumulatively for 155 249 years, with a median of 6.0 years. The mean annual rate of operation was 24 per 100 000 inhabitants, the median age of the patients was 42 years. The 30-day death rate was 0.5 per 1000 operations. The rates of re-operation at one and ten years were 5% and 10%, respectively, decreasing significantly (40%) with time. The mean length of stay decreased from nine to five days. Patients who had been in hospital because of a previous spinal disorder had a significantly higher risk of readmission.