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Do Former Smokers Exhibit a Distinct Profile Before and After Lumbar Spine Surgery?

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Spine Jun 2017 Jazini E et al

 

RESULTS:

Of 1187 eligible cases, 843 (71%) had complete data, with 477 Never, 250 Former, and 116 Current smokers. Among patients who had a fusion, baseline and 12-month post-op PROs were significantly different between cohorts, with Former smokers having intermediate scores between Current and Never smokers. In the decompression only group, 12-month ODI was worse in the Current smokers, but overall the effects were much less pronounced. There was a significant negative correlation between smoke-free days prior to surgery and baseline back pain, ODI, 12-month leg pain and ODI and improvement in ODI. However, the correlation coefficients were small.

CONCLUSION:

Former smokers have distinct baseline and 12-month post-op PROs that are intermediate between those of never smokers and current smokers. Smoking cessation does not entirely mitigate the negative effects of smoking on baseline and postoperative PROs for patients undergoing lumbar fusion surgery. This effect is less pronounced in patients undergoing decompression alone.

Why Lumbar Artificial Disk Replacements (LADRs) Fail.

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Clin surg 2017 Pettie et al

 

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Every patient undergoing ADR at 1 IDE site by 2 surgeons was evaluated for clinical success. Failure was defined as <50% improvement in ODI and VAS or any additional surgery at index or adjacent spine motion segment. Three ADRs were evaluated: Maverick, 25 patients; Charité, 31 patients; and Kineflex, 35 patients. All procedures were 1-level operations performed at L4-L5 or L5-S1. Demographics and inclusion/exclusion criteria were similar and will be discussed.

RESULTS:

Overall clinical failure occurred in 26% (24 of 91 patients) at 2-year follow-up. Clinical failure occurred in: 28% (Maverick) (7 of 25 patients), 39% (Charité) (12 of 31 patients), and 14% (Kineflex) (5 of 35 patients). Causes of failure included facet pathology, 50% of failure patients (12 of 24). Implant complications occurred in 5% of total patients and 21% of failure patients (5 of 24). Only 5 patients went from a success to failure after 3 months. Only 1 patient went from a failure to success after a facet rhizotomy 1 year after ADR.

CONCLUSIONS:

Seventy-four percent of patients after ADR met strict clinical success after 2-year follow-up. The clinical success versus failure rate did not change from their 3-month follow-up in 85 of the 91 patients (93%). Overall clinical success may be improved most by patient selection and implant type.

Do manual therapies help low back pain? A comparative effectiveness meta-analysis.

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Spine April 2014. Menke M.

STUDY DESIGN:

Meta-analysis methodology was extended to derive comparative effectiveness information on spinal manipulation for low back pain.

RESULTS:

Of 84% acute pain variance, 81% was from nonspecific factors and 3% from treatment. No treatment for acute pain exceeded sham’s effectiveness. Most acute results were within 95% confidence that predicted by natural history alone. For chronic pain, 66% of 98% was nonspecific, but treatments influenced 32% of outcomes. Chronic pain treatments also fit within 95% confidence bands as predicted by natural history. Though the evidential support for treating chronic back pain as compared with sham groups was weak, chronic pain seemed to respond to SMT, whereas whole systems of clinical management did not.

CONCLUSION:

Meta-analyses can extract comparative effectiveness information from existing literature. The relatively small portion of outcomes attributable to treatment explains why past research results fail to converge on stable estimates. The probability of treatment superiority matched a binomial random process. Treatments serve to motivate, reassure, and calibrate patient expectations–-features that might reduce medicalization and augment self-care. Exercise with authoritative support is an effective strategy for acute and chronic low back pain.