Outcome assessment in spinal surgery

Abstract

The evaluation of treatment modalities in spinal orders by self-administered assessment tools has become standard in most institutions. In many fields of medicine and particularly in spinal surgery, it has become evident that treatment outcome is influenced by a large variety of non-morphological factors [100]. Psychosocial aspects andwork-related factors often exhibit a higher predictive value than pathomorphological and surgical aspects [47]. Therefore, it has become apparent that a meaningful outcome assessment should consider most of these confounding variables, which, however, is not always possible to achieve in a busy clinical practice. The minimal data set that should be collected consists of: pain disability quality of life work status © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.