Pain perception and patient satisfaction after conservative versus surgical low back pain management:...

Low back pain remains a leading cause of disability and uncertainty persists regarding optimal treatment selection between conservative and surgical approaches. A key reason that individuals have trouble deciding on the best route to take, surgical type or conservative type, as treatment options is because there is still a lack of clarity surrounding which type of treatment options to use. Therefore, it is of interest to analyse pain perception and patient satisfaction in 100 participants (50 patients receiving surgery, 50 patients receiving conservative treatment). Both conservative and surgical treatments resulted in significant reductions in pain scores; however, the surgical treatment group had a greater positive impact (mean pain reduction 68.9% versus 52.3%) and greater patient satisfaction (4.1 mean satisfaction score, versus 3.4 mean satisfaction score; p < 0.05). Functional improvement was greater following surgery and recurrence of back pain was more prevalent in the conservative treatment group. Thus, we show that the clinical severity, expected outcomes and patient preferences should be taken into consideration when selecting treatment options in order to optimize recovery and ensure patient satisfaction.