The Relationship of preoperative preparation to postoperative recovery and satisfaction in patients with intervertebral disc disease

Eighteen patients with inter-vertebral disc disease were divided into an experimental and control group to determine answers to the following questions: 1. Do patients who receive the suggested preoperative care have a less complicated recovery? 2. Are patients who receive the suggested preoperative care more satisfied with their care? Each member of both groups was visited preoperatively. The members of the experimental group were give special instruction in the rehabilitative measures suggested in nursing literature. Members of the control group were visited for approximately the same length of time but were not give the special rehabilitative instructions. Patients in both groups were matched on the basis of age, sex, and amount of physical activity. Postoperatively, the recovery of patients in both groups was evaluated on the basis of number of narcotics and sedatives taken post-operatively; the complications which occurred following surgery; the number of days hospitalized; the nurse's and doctor's evaluation of the patient's reaction to activity and his rate of progress toward recovery; and the patient's own evaluation of his rate of progress toward recovery. In addition, each patient was given a questionnaire to determine his satisfaction with hospital care. Each member of the control group was given another questionnaire to ascertain what kind of preoperative information he believed would have promoted his welfare and recovery. The findings indicated that special preoperative preparation for patients having removal of inter-vertebral disc does not result in a less complicated recovery or a greater satisfaction with hospital care. However, differences between the experimental and control groups were in the expected direction on all except the doctor's evaluation. These differences might be statistically reliable with a larger sample. The value of preoperative preparation, however, was acknowledged by both the experimental and control groups.