Telephone-Based Intervention to Improve Rehabilitation Engagement After Spinal Stenosis Surgery: A Prospective Lagged Controlled Trial.

Background: Spine surgery outcomes are variable. Patients who participate in and take responsibility for their recovery have improved health outcomes. Interventions to increase patient involvement in their care may improve health outcomes after a surgical procedure.

Health behavior change counseling in surgery for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis. Part I: improvement in rehabilitation engagement and functional outcomes.

Objective: To examine whether a brief motivational interviewing [MI]-based health behavior change counseling (HBCC) intervention increased patient participation in physical therapy and/or home exercise programs (HEPs), reduced disability, and improved health status after surgery for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis.

Design: Prospective clinical trial.

Setting: Academic medical center.

Health behavior change counseling in surgery for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis. Part II: patient activation mediates the effects of health behavior change counseling on rehabilitation engagement.

Objective: To determine the effect of health behavior change counseling (HBCC) on patient activation and the influence of patient activation on rehabilitation engagement, and to identify common barriers to engagement among individuals undergoing surgery for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis.

Design: Prospective clinical trial.

Setting: Academic medical center.

The impact of reduction of pain after lumbar spine surgery: the relationship between changes in pain and physical function and disability.

Study Design: Prospective cohort study.

Objective: To examine the relationship between improvement in pain intensity and subsequent improvement in physical function and disability during the first 12 months after lumbar spine surgery.

Summary Of Background Data: Little is known about how reduction of pain intensity after surgery may predict improvements in physical function and disability.

United States hospital admissions for lumbar spinal stenosis: racial and ethnic differences, 2000 through 2009.

Study Design: Retrospective analysis of Nationwide Inpatient Sample and US Census data.

Objective: To (1) document national trends in surgical hospitalizations with the primary diagnosis of lumbar spinal stenosis from 2000 through 2009; and (2) evaluate how those trends relate to race and ethnicity.

Summary Of Background Data: In the United States, the rate of lumbar spinal stenosis surgery is increasing, and understanding how changing demographic trends impact hospitalization rates for this surgery is important.

Functional recovery in lumbar spine surgery: a controlled trial of health behavior change counseling to improve outcomes.

In 2001, the Institute of Medicine issued a challenge to the American health care system to improve the quality of care by focusing on six major areas: safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency, and equity. The patient-centered model of care directly addresses important limits of surgical care of the lumbar spine, i.e.

The relationship between pain and depressive symptoms after lumbar spine surgery.

Although depressive symptoms are common among those living with back pain, there is limited information on the relationship between postsurgical pain reduction and changes in depressive symptoms. The objective of this prospective cohort study was to examine the change in pain and depressive symptoms and to characterize the relationship between pain and depressive symptoms after lumbar spine surgery. We assessed 260 individuals undergoing lumbar spine surgery preoperatively and postoperatively (3 and 6 months) using a pain intensity numeric rating scale and the Patient Health Questionnaire depression scale.

Minimum clinically important differences in the Cervical Spine Outcomes Questionnaire: results from a national multicenter study of patients treated with anterior cervical decompression and arthrodesis.

Background: The minimum clinically important difference is a clinically relevant threshold of improvement. A substantial clinical benefit is a threshold of change that correlates with clinically important improvement. The Cervical Spine Outcomes Questionnaire is a disease-specific, patient-reported outcomes instrument that was developed to be sensitive to changes associated with surgical treatment for degenerative cervical disc disease.

Agreement between surgeons and an independent panel with respect to surgical site fusion after single-level anterior cervical spine surgery: a prospective, multicenter study.

Study Design: Prospective multicenter cohort study.

Objective: To assess the: (1) agreement between surgeon and independent review of fusion after single-level anterior cervical decompression and fusion, and (2) influence of surgeon impression of patient status on agreement.

Summary Of Background Data: Failure to achieve fusion can lead to poor functional outcome.