Improvements in Mental Well-Being and its Predictive Factors in Patients who Underwent Cervical versus Lumbar Decompression Surgery

INTRODUCTION: Mental well-being is essential for patient satisfaction. Therefore, a better understanding of the changes in the mental well-being of patients following spinal surgery can be useful to surgeons. We compared the 2-year postoperative change in the mental well-being of patients who underwent cervical and lumbar decompression surgery. Additionally, the predictive factors for improvement in mental well-being associated with both methods were evaluated. METHODS: The patients who underwent spinal decompression surgery and were followed >2 years postoperatively were enrolled (lumbar cohort: n=111, cervical cohort: n=121). The 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) mental component summary (MCS) was set as the mental well-being parameter, and the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) was defined as 4.0. After adjusting the cervical and lumbar cohorts using propensity scores, the improvements in the MCS were compared between the groups using a mixed-effect model. To identify predictors for improvements, the correlation between the MCS changes and preoperative clinical scores was evaluated. Subsequently, multivariate linear regression was applied, which included variables with p<0.10 in the former analysis as explanatory variables, and the change of MCS as the objective variable. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the MCS improvement between the adjusted cervical and lumbar cohorts; 47% and 49%, respectively, had MCS improvement score >MCIDs. However, predictors for the improvement were different between the two cohorts: SF-36 Social functioning in cervical surgery and lower back pain and SF-36 Role physical in lumbar surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Although there was no significant difference in the improvement in the mental well-being between patients who underwent either cervical or lumbar decompression surgery, less than half of the patients in both groups achieved a meaningful improvement. Preoperative back pain and personal activity were independent predictors in the lumbar cohort, while social functioning was the only predictor in the cervical cohort. Level of evidence: III