مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Evaluation of patients with degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis after surgery in terms of anxiety and depression

Abstract :

Introduction The most common cause of low back pain and the surgeries of this region is degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis. Psychiatric complaints of patients which mostly affects the results before and after surgery are being ignored. We investigate this kind of patients in terms of anxiety and depression after surgery. Patients and Method We evaluated the patients with visual analog scale, Oswestry disability questionnaire, hospital anxiety and depression scale who have applied low back surgery at least 6 months ago and who are over 60 years old. Results: We included 23 patients who were underwent surgeries between 2008-2011. Those age range was 62-87. They underwent surgeries an average of 11.6 months before. When we compare the scores of Visual Analogue Scale and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, it was found statistically significant as their p values were 0.022 and 0.020 respectively. Although it was not found statistically significant, we found increased anxiety and decreased depression scale in patients with lower Oswestry Disability Questionnaire scores. Discussion Some of the patients who were treated surgically due to degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis still have complaints like disability and pain after surgery. This situation negatively affects the patients quality of life and their mental condition. Congruent with our study, patients who continued with post-operative pain, had higher anxiety and depression scores. Also, a comorbid psychiatric disorder in those patients may cause resistant pain. For this purpose, we think that, it is important to follow up and monitor their psychiatric situations before and after the surgery.