THURSDAY, Feb. 26 (HealthDay News) -- In patients undergoing cervical spine surgery, clinical improvement -- especially in neck pain -- is associated with improved patient satisfaction, according to a report published in the March issue of The Spine Journal.

Richard L. Skolasky, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues used a relatively new tool -- the Cervical Spine Outcomes Questionnaire -- to assess the correlation between holistic outcomes three months after anterior cervical decompression and fusion, and self-reported patient satisfaction in 428 patients at 23 nationwide sites.

The researchers found that the clinical features most strongly associated with increased patient satisfaction and the likelihood of recommending the procedure to others were improvements in neck pain severity and functional disability. They also demonstrated that socioeconomic factors, such as receiving workers' compensation, impact the correlation between clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction.

"We have shown that the influence of symptom resolution on satisfaction in the orthopedic arena is similar to that in other clinical areas, that patient expectation is important to postoperative satisfaction, and that the Cervical Spine Outcomes Questionnaire is a viable measure of pain and disability in cervical spine disorders and is useful in measuring success in the treatment of these abnormalities," the authors write.

The study was supported by donations from Aesculap, Inc., DePuy AcroMed, Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Stryker Spine (Osteonics), and Synthes Spine.

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