Trial reportEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2013
An exploration of patients' expectation of and satisfaction with surgical outcome.
Trial report in European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Exploring the expectation-actuality discrepancy: a systematic review of the impact of preoperative expectations on satisfaction and patient reported outcomes in spinal surgery.Neurosurgical review · 2018Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for the Management of Postsurgical Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial (SPINE-ACT Study).European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Trial
- Bowel Preparation for Colonoscopy: The Patient Point of View.Digestive diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Trial
- Translation and initial psychometric evaluation of the Danish version of the treatment expectation questionnaire (TEX-Q).Journal of patient-reported outcomes · 2026Article
- What Patients Want? A Pilot Single-Center Study Prioritizing Patient Expectations.Global spine journal · 2026Article
- Trust in medical art is the most effective coping mechanism for predicting treatment satisfaction in elective neurosurgery.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Predicting Likelihood to Repeat Elective Hand Surgery with Early Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand Scores: A Feasibility Study.Journal of hand surgery global online · 2025Article
- Comparing mid-term outcomes and patient satisfaction between percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy and microendoscopic discectomy for foraminal and extraforaminal lumbar disc herniations: a retrospective matched cohort study.Frontiers in surgery · 2025Article
- Return to Skiing After Proximal Tibial Fracture: Postoperative Reality and Initial Expectations.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Patient Likelihood to Repeat Surgery After Highly "Successful" Hand Procedures.Hand (New York, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- Patients with complex proximal tibial fractures overestimate the prognosis of their injury.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2022Article
- Expected Versus Experienced Health-Related Quality of Life Among Patients Recovering From Cancer Surgery: A Prospective Cohort Study.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2021Article
- The dynamics of satisfaction in surgical and non-surgical adult spinal deformity patients.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2021Article
- The Correlation of Communication Effectiveness and Patient Satisfaction.Journal of patient experience · 2021Article
- Factors Associated With Patient Satisfaction Measured Using a Guttman-Type Scale.Journal of patient experience · 2020Article
- Women Do Not Have Poorer Outcomes After Minimally Invasive Lumbar Fusion Surgery: A Five-Year Follow-Up Study.International journal of spine surgery · 2020Article
- A Qualitative Descriptive Study of Patient Experiences of Pain Before and After Spine Surgery.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2020Article
- Physician-Centered Outcomes for Skin Cancer Treatment: A Single-Day Modified Delphi Process to Assess the Importance of Themes in Skin Cancer Management.Dermatologic surgery : official publication for American Society for Dermatologic Surgery [et al.] · 2019Article
- Analyses of effect factors associated with the postoperative dissatisfaction of patients undergoing open-door laminoplasty for cervical OPLL: a retrospective cohort study.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeThe majority of studies of surgical outcome focus on measures of function and pain. Increasingly, however, the desire to include domains such as patients' satisfaction and expectations had led to the development of simple measures and their inclusion into clinical studies. The purpose of this study was to determine patients' pre-operative expectations of and post-operative satisfaction with the outcome of their spinal surgery.
methodsAs part of the FASTER randomised controlled trial, patients were asked pre-operatively to quantify their expected improvement in pain and health status at 6 weeks, 6 and 12 months following surgery using 100 mm visual analogue scales (VAS), and to indicate their confidence in achieving this result and also the importance of this recovery to them. Patients were then asked to rate their satisfaction with the improvement achieved at each post-operative review using 100 mm VAS.
resultsAlthough differences between patients' expectation and achievement were minimal 6 weeks post-operatively, there was a clear discrepancy at 6 months and 1 year, with patient expectations far exceeding achievement. There were significant correlations between failure to achieve expectations and the importance patients attached to this recovery at each post-operative assessment, but not with their confidence in achieving this result. Satisfaction levels remained high despite expectations not being met, with discectomy patients being more satisfied than decompression patients.
conclusionsPatients' pre-operative expectations of surgical outcome exceed their long-term achievement. The more importance the patient attached to a good outcome, the larger is the discrepancy between expectation and achievement. Despite this, satisfaction levels remained high. The impact of unrealistic expectations on outcome remains unclear.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.