ArticleCureus2025
Implications of Tomophobia and Tomophilia for Clinical Practice: Understanding Patient Attitudes Toward Spine Surgery.
Article in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
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.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Advances in spine surgery have dramatically improved safety and precision, yet patient perceptions of surgery now span two psychological extremes: tomophobia, an irrational fear of surgical intervention, and tomophilia, an excessive enthusiasm for operative solutions. This conceptual review explores their historical roots, psychosocial drivers, and clinical implications. Tomophobia leads to treatment avoidance and anxiety, while tomophilia fosters overutilization and surgery beyond indication. Addressing both requires balancing empathy with evidence, emphasizing patient education, and reinforcing ethical decision-making. Recognizing these attitudes can help clinicians navigate the psychological dimension of surgical consent and promote truly patient-centered spine care.
Indexed as
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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.