Patients' experience on waiting for spinal arthrodesis: a qualitative study.

Purpose: A number of studies have explored patients' subjective experience of waiting for spinal surgery, however, they did so through an investigation conducted post-operatively. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the experience of patients while still on the waitlist for lumbar spinal arthrodesis.

Methods: This qualitative study of semi-structured interviews was conducted at an orthopedic research institute in Italy.