Older Age and Leg Pain Are Good Predictors of Pain and Disability Outcomes in 2710 Patients Who Receive Lumbar Fusion.

backgroundIdentifying appropriate candidates for lumbar spine fusion is a challenging and controversial topic. The purpose of this study was to identify baseline characteristics related to poor/favorable outcomes at 1 year for a patient who received lumbar spine fusion. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: The aims of this study were to describe baseline characteristics of those who received lumbar surgery and to identify baseline characteristics from a spine repository that were related to poor and favorable pain and disability outcomes for patient who received lumbar fusion (with or without decompression), who were followed up for 1 full year and discriminate predictor variables that were either or in contrast to prognostic variables reported in the literature.

methodsThis study analyzed data from 2710 patients who underwent lumbar spine fusion. All patient data was part of a multicenter, multi-national spine repository. Ten relatively commonly captured data variables were used as predictors for the study. Univariate/multivariate logistic regression analyses were run against outcome variables of pain/disability.

resultsMultiple univariate findings were associated with pain/disability outcomes at 1 year including age, previous surgical history, baseline disability, baseline pain, baseline quality of life scores, and leg pain greater than back pain. Notably significant multivariate findings for both pain and disability include older age, previous surgical history, and baseline mental summary scores, disability, and pain.

conclusionLeg pain greater than back pain and older age may yield promising value when predicting positive outcomes. Other significant findings may yield less value since these findings are similar to those that are considered to be prognostic regardless of intervention type.