The Maine Lumbar Spine Study, Part II

Abstract

Although surgically treated patients were on average more symptomatic at entry, there was substantial overlap in symptoms between surgically treated and nonsurgically treated patients. Surgically treated patients with sciatica reported substantially greater improvement at 1-year follow-up. However, employment and compensation outcomes were similar between the two treatment groups, and surgery appeared to provide little advantage for the subset of patients with mild symptoms. These results should be interpreted cautiously, because surgical treatment was not assigned randomly. Long-term follow-up will determine if these differences persist.