Effect of spirituality on successful recovery from spinal surgery.

Background: Many patients believe prayer helps them recover from health problems. Benefits of spirituality on other illnesses and surgical procedures have been reported. It is unknown whether patients with strong spiritual beliefs have a greater propensity for successful recovery from spinal surgery.

Methods: In this study, 188 patients having spinal surgery completed the visual analog pain scale (VAS) and the Oswestry functional capacity questionnaire (OSW) before and after operation, and the scores were used to assess surgical outcome. Degree of spirituality was assessed using the INSPIRIT survey.

Results: Paired t test revealed significant improvements in both the VAS and OSW outcome measures. Linear regression analysis revealed no correlation between change in either VAS or OSW.

Conclusions: These results suggest that recovery from spinal surgery may be more dependent on proper patient selection and surgical technique than on patient spiritual beliefs.