Study design: Prospective cohort study.
Objective: Investigate the impact of thoracolumbar surgery on patients' psychosocial profiles.
Methods: A prospective cohort study of thoracolumbar surgery patients (N = 177). Measures of interest collected at baseline and 24-months after surgery were: modified Oswestry Disability Index (mODI), Numerical Rating Scores for Back Pain (NRS-B), Leg Pain (NRS-L), Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK), Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire-8 (CPAQ-8), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), Mental Component Summary (MCS) and patient expectations for surgery impacts on mental well-being. Cohorts were separated based on attaining meaningful change defined as either 30% improvement or minimal scores in NRS-B, NRS-L and mODI. Mixed measures ANOVAs were run (α = .05).
Results: Patients who showed meaningful change had significant improvements in PCS, TSK and CPAQ-8 scores but not in MSPSS scores. Patients had improvement in MCS scores over 24-months follow-up, but this change was not significantly different based on attainment of meaningful change. Overall, 75.9% of patients reported their mental well-being expectations were met. Patients who did not achieve meaningful change showed no change on any psychosocial measures with only 55.9% reporting their mental well-being expectations met.
Conclusion: Thoracolumbar surgery results in significant improvement of psychosocial variables for patients who experienced meaningful change for pain and disability. Worsening of psychosocial health was not evident in patients who did not attain meaningful change.
Keywords: back pain; disability; mental health; surgery; thoracolumbar.