Pre- and postoperative factors associated with return to work following surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis
✍ Scribed by Arto Herno; Olavi Airaksinen; Tapani Saari; Olavi Svomalainen
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 531 KB
- Volume
- 30
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0271-3586
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Low back disorders are an increasingly common and costly health problem in Western countries. It has been recommended that the return to w,ork of patients should be the most important outcome measure of medical care. The aim of this study was to compare women's and men's working capacity after lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) operations and to identih the factors refuted to it. The subjects of this study were 185 women (mean age 54 years, mean follow-up time 4.2 years) and 254 men (mean age 52 years, mean follow-up time 4.3 years). After the operation, 37% of the women and 41 % of the men returned to work. None of the patients who had retired before the operation returned to work afterward. The variables that predicted postoperative ability to M-iork for women were: being fit to Miork at the time of operation, age <50 years at the time of operation, and duration of LSS symptoms <2 years. For men, these variables were: being fit to work at the time of operation, age 4 0 years at the time of operation, no prior surgeq, and the extent of the surgical procedure equul to or less than I larninectonzy. Women's and men's working capacity do not differ after LSS operation. If the aim is to maximize urorking capacity, then, when an LSS operation is indicated, it should be performed without delay. In LSS patients who are >50 years old and on sick leave, it is unrealistic to expect that they will return to work. Therefore, after such an extensive surgical procedure, re-education of patients for lighter jobs could improve the chances of these patients returning to work.