An article published in Spine examined which patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis had the best outcomes with surgery and non-operative treatment.
The researchers examined 395 patients who underwent surgery and 210 that underwent non-operative care for degenerative spondylolisthesis. The researchers defined subgroups for calculating the treatment effects. All subgroups with at least 50 patients improved significantly more with surgery than nonoperative treatment.
Factors associated with positive treatment effect include:
• Age of 67 or less;
• Female sex;
• Absence of stomach problems;
• Opioid use;
• Absence of antidepressants
• Dissatisfaction with symptoms
• Anticipating a high likelihood of improvement with surgery.
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