Study: Poor Spinal Surgery Outcomes For Chronic Low Back Pain

Injured workers who underwent lumbar spinal fusion surgery for chronic low back pain were far less likely to return to work than patients that did not have surgery and were also more likely to take narcotics, University of Cincinnati researchers reported during a presentation at the Ohio Self-Insurers Association on Thursday.Only 26% of patients who underwent lumbar spinal fusion surgery had returned to work two years afterward, while 67% of the patients in a control group were back on the job two years after injury, Dr. Trang Nguyen, Ph.D, and Dr. David C. Randolph said during the conference,...