Table 1.
Information used to predict post surgery outcomes
| Patient characteristics and history |
| Patient personality and expectations1, including motivation |
| Age, occupation/unemployment, social issues, smoking, weight |
| Presence or absence of personal injury or yellow flags |
| Diabetes, other medical co-morbidities |
| Clinical information including patient history, e.g., symptoms duration |
| Use of outcome data, e.g., DRAM, GAD7, ODI, PHQ9, SF36, SRS, VAS pain, walking |
| Response to previous approaches, e.g., physiotherapy, facet joint injections, discogram, disc block |
| Pathology or degree of deformity |
| Number of levels predominant leg pain; more leg than back pain |
| Performance based outcome measures |
| Neurological examination |
| Imaging: CT scans, CT with 3D reconstruction, discography, MRI scans, X-ray |
| Evidence |
| Audit of data from past patients |
| Literature or empirical evidence |
| Experiential clinical experience |
| Other |
| Pathology: segmental instability, single level, spondylolisthesis, central disc protrusion |
| Pain mechanism: no features of chronic regional pain syndrome (allodynia, non-anatomical pain), stenosis |
1
Realistic expectations (VAS 4/10 end result would be satisfactory). DRAM: Distress Risk Assessment Method; GAD7: Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale; ODI: Oswestry Disability Index; PHQ9: Patient health questionnaire - depression component; VAS: Visual analogue scale; SRS: Session rating scale.