SynthesisNeurosurgical review2018
Exploring the expectation-actuality discrepancy: a systematic review of the impact of preoperative expectations on satisfaction and patient reported outcomes in spinal surgery.
Synthesis in Neurosurgical review, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 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
25 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Patient expectations for management of chronic non-cancer pain: A systematic review.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2017Pooled it
- Trust in medical art is the most effective coping mechanism for predicting treatment satisfaction in elective neurosurgery.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Pain catastrophizing and postoperative satisfaction in cervical disc herniation: a 6-month prospective cohort study.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2026Article
- Article
- Expectations of cerebrospinal fluid shunt treatment outcome in idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus: a combined cross-sectional and prospective cohort study.Brain & spine · 2026Article
- Influence of Frailty on Clinical and Radiological Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion-Analysis of a Controlled Cohort of 408 Patients.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Patients' experience on waiting for spinal arthrodesis: a qualitative study.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025Observational
- Mental state as a predictor of outcome in spinal stenosis surgery: Four quadrants model integrating patient satisfaction and functional outcome.Brain & spine · 2024Article
- Does a relationship exist between preoperative expectations and overall satisfaction in spine surgery patients?-a prospective cohort study.Journal of spine surgery (Hong Kong) · 2023Article
- The Effectiveness of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention Integrated with Physical Therapy (MIND-PT) for Postsurgical Rehabilitation After Lumbar Surgery: A Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial as Part of the Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Research Program.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2023Article
- Comparison of Lumbar Fusion Surgical Outcomes Between Patients with Lumbar Spinal Stenosis ≥80 Versus 65-79 Years Old.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2023Article
- Usability and performance expectancy govern spine surgeons' use of a clinical decision support system for shared decision-making on the choice of treatment of common lumbar degenerative disorders.Frontiers in digital health · 2023Article
- Poorer surgical outcomes at 2 years postoperatively in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis with long-term preoperative leg numbness: a single-center retrospective study.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2022Article
- Expectations of treatment outcomes in patients with spinal metastases; what do we tell our patients? A qualitative study.BMC cancer · 2021Article
- Future-Proofing Startups: Stress Management Principles Based on Adaptive Calibration Model and Active Inference Theory.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Psychomotor Predictive Processing.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Experiences From the Patient Perspective on Spinal Cord Stimulation for Failed Back Surgery Syndrome: A Qualitatively Driven Mixed Method Analysis.Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society · 2021Article
- Article
- What level of symptoms are patients with adult spinal deformity prepared to live with? A cross-sectional analysis of the 12-month follow-up data from 1043 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 · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Quality in healthcare is increasingly graded through a patient-centric lens, using reports of satisfaction and self-perceived outcome. Preestablished expectations have been recognized to influence these measures. With this review, we aim to examine the impact of expectations on satisfaction and patient-reported outcomes (PRO) for individuals undergoing elective spine surgery. We systematically searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library electronic databases from inception to July 2015 for studies examining the relationship between expectations and satisfaction/PROs in the context of elective spinal surgery. Qualitative synthesis centered around three key questions: (1) Does the magnitude of preoperative expectations impact patient satisfaction and/or PRO after surgery? (2) Does the underlying spinal pathology influence this relationship? (3) What is the impact of unmet expectations on satisfaction? A total of 1489 citations were retrieved. Nineteen met our inclusion criteria. These comprised 3383 patients; 3200 had lumbar and only 183 had cervical spine surgery. Three findings prevailed: (1) high preoperative expectations appear to be associated with higher satisfaction and PROs after surgery for focal lumbar disc herniation, but not for lumbar spinal stenosis; (2) patient expectations frequently exceed actual outcome, creating an "expectation-actuality discrepancy" (E-AD); and (3) high-quality studies suggest a larger E-AD portends lower satisfaction. Limitations to the data include heterogeneous study populations and surgical indications, along with the use of non-validated assessment tools, particularly for satisfaction. Our findings highlight the potential importance of establishing realistic expectations prior to surgery and may serve to direct future research efforts.
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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.