A comparison of surgeon's assessment to patient's self analysis (short form 36) after far lateral lumbar disc surgery. An outcome study

Between 1984 and 1994, 170 patients had surgery for far lateral discs. Patients were assessed by the surgeon as having poor (no improvement, increased deficit), fair (mild improvement, moderate residual deficit), good (moderate improvement, mild residual deficit) or excellent (marked improvement, no deficit) physical outcomes. The Medical Outcome Trust's SF-36 survey was completed by 76 (45%) patients, using one interviewer. Patient-based outcome studies are becoming increasingly important. A surgeon's assessment of outcome was compared with the patients' self assessment (Short Form 36) after far lateral lumbar disc surgery. The SF-36 survey provides measures on eight dimensions: physical function, role physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social function, role-emotional, and mental health. Patients averaged 60.1 years of age, and included 43 men and 33 women. Patients were last examined an average of 9.1 months after their surgery, and were interviewed by telephone an average of 2.8 years later. Patients completing the survey were evaluated on their last visit to the surgeon as having excellent (32 patients), good (24), fair (12), and poor (8) outcomes. Overall correlations between the surgeon's assessment and all 76 patients' SF-36 scores were modest. However, for those patients examined within 4.5 years of the surgeon's assessment (n = 56), correlations were statistically significant for 6 of the SF-36 measures. Only general health and social function showed correlations less than 0.25. The surgeon's assessment was a particularly good predictor of SF-36 measures if the surgeon assessed the patient within the past 4.5 years. The SF-36 should be useful for large-scale outcome studies.