Do surgical expectations change depending on first time surgery or reoperation? A prospective cohort study in lumbar spine surgery

To assess whether patients undergoing lumbar spine surgery for the first time (Group 1) had different expectations from those undergoing lumbar spine surgery for a failed previous procedure (Group 2).A prospective study that included 77 patients. A set of self-reported questionnaires was pre-operatively administered including VAS, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Zung Depression Scale and the NASS lumbar spine questionnaire (expectations scale).Fifty-six patients in Group 1 and 21 patients in Group 2. Both groups had high expectations with regard to the surgical procedure (n.s.). Depressed patients, despite being more disabled than non-depressed according to ODI (p 0.001), had similar expectations than non-depressed patients (n.s.).Patients' expectations remained very high despite having had a failed previous surgery for the same procedure.