Table 4.

Cost Variability for the Treatment of Lower Back Pain With Positive Discogram at L4-L5 (Scenario 3).

Surgeon Characteristics	ALIF (%)	PLIF/TLIF (%)	No Surgery (%)	Average Cost per Surgeon	P Value
Region					.142
Midwest	17 (17)	20 (20)	65 (63)	$8106
Northeast	17 (21)	18 (22)	47 (57)	$9538
Southeast	15 (20)	26 (35)	34 (45)	$12 218
Southwest	7 (25)	7 (25)	14 (50)	$11 173
West	10 (23)	7 (16)	27 (61)	$8632
Specialty					.320
Neurological surgery	15 (18)	25 (30)	43 (52)	$10 771
Orthopedic surgery	51 (21)	53 (21)	144 (58)	$9371
Fellowship training					.632
Yes	54 (20)	60 (23)	152 (57)	$9577
No	12 (18)	18 (28)	35 (54)	$10 315
Practice type					<.001*
Academic	8 (9)	13 (15)	67 (76)	$5333
Hybrid	15 (26)	10 (17)	33 (57)	$9630
Private	43 (23)	55 (30)	87 (47)	$11 838
Surgeries per year					.077
0-100	4 (11)	7 (19)	26 (70)	$6644
101-150	7 (14)	9 (18)	35 (68)	$7011
151-200	20 (26)	19 (24)	39 (50)	$11 173
201-250	11 (18)	14 (23)	36 (59)	$9159
251-300	12 (24)	13 (25)	26 (51)	$10 954
>300	12 (23)	16 (30)	25 (47)	$11 807
Practice length in years					.322
<5	7 (19)	5 (14)	25 (67)	$7246
5-10	10 (18)	12 (21)	34 (61)	$8779
10-15	11 (24)	14 (30)	21 (46)	$12 146
15-20	14 (20)	18 (26)	37 (54)	$10 364
>20	24 (19)	29 (24)	70 (57)	$9629
Discogram use					<.001*
Never	8 (8)	8 (8)	87 (84)	$3471
Rarely	18 (15)	29 (23)	78 (62)	$8403
Sometimes	25 (37)	25 (37)	17 (26)	$16 676
Often	15 (42)	16 (44)	5 (14)	$19 243

Abbreviations: ALIF, anterior lumbar interbody fusion; PLIF, posterior lumbar interbody fusion; TLIF, transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion.

*Statistically significant at P < .01.