Beneficial Effects of Preoperative Exercise on the Outcomes of Lumbar Fusion Spinal Surgery.

To determine whether there was an association between self-reported preoperative exercise and postoperative outcomes after lumbar fusion spinal surgery. We performed a retrospective multivariable analysis of the prospective Canadian Spine Outcomes and Research Network (CSORN) database of 2,203 patients who had elective single-level lumbar fusion spinal surgeries. We compared adverse events and hospital length of stay between patients who reported regular exercise (twice or more per week) prior to surgery ("Regular Exercise") to those exercising infrequently (once or less per week) ("Infrequent Exercise") or those who did no exercise ("No Exercise").