Life satisfaction and pain interference in spine surgery patients before and after surgery: comparison between on-opioid and opioid-naive patients

摘要

PurposePain has a negative impact on life satisfaction (LS). Our primary aims were to compare LS in on-opioid and opioid-naive spine surgery patients and to evaluate whether surgery affects LS during the first 3weeks after surgery.MethodsAfter informed consent 200 patients (99 on-opioid, 101 opioid-naive; 112 male; aged 23-71years) having elective spine surgery were enrolled. Their LS was evaluated using a four-item Life Satisfaction Scale (4-20, lower score more satisfied) and pain interference using Brief Pain Inventory (BPI)-questionnaire (0-10, lower score, less interference) before and 21days after surgery.ResultsAt baseline LS was lower in the ON-OPIOID-group, mean LS-score 10.6 (SD 3.9), than that in the OPIOID-NAiVE-group, 9.3 (3.0) (p=.027). At 3weeks after surgery LS had increased in both groups compared to baseline (p.001). However, LS was still lower in the ON-OPIOID-group, 9.1 (3.7) than that in the OPIOID-NAiVE-group, 7.6 (2.7) (p=.005). Patients with lower LS experienced more pain interference pre- and post-operatively (p.001). At 3weeks the pain interference had decreased in both groups, in the ON-OPIOID-group from mean BPI-score 5.1 (2.0) to 3.0 (2.0) (p.001) and in the OPIOID-NAiVE-group from 4.0 (2.1) to 2.4 (2.3) (p.001), but BPI-score was still higher in the ON-OPIOID-group (p=.045).ConclusionLife satisfaction increased and pain interference decreased in both groups after spine surgery. However, LS was lower and pain interference was more significant in on-opioid patients than that in opioid-naive patients.