The Impact of a Pre-Operative Spinal Education (POSE) program on post-operative length of stay following spinal fusion surgery

Abstract

Purpose: Offering psycho-educative discourse and information prior to elective lower-limb joint replacement surgery improves rehabilitative outcomes by better managing patients’ expectations. Our tertiary orthopaedic service in a large urban UK NHS Trust has found anecdotally that elective spinal surgery patients experience pre-surgery anxiety relating to expected pain and immobility, which might prolong their post-surgical hospital length-of-stay (LOS). But it remains unknown whether pre-surgical psycho-educative approaches are beneficial in minimising LOS in this patient group.