Health-related quality of life after surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis: A follow-up study in China

Objective: Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a usual condition for spinal surgeries among adults over 65 years old. We conducted the present study to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) after LSS in a group of Chinese patients.Methodology: We followed up 79 patients who received surgeries for LSS for one year. The HRQoL before treatment and one year after treatment was evaluated with the Medical Outcome Short Form 36 (SF-36).Results: The HRQoL of patients after LSS significantly improved in three mental health domains (social function, vitality and mental health) and all four physical health domains one year after surgical treatments. However, patients with TBI still had significant lower scores in every domain than the reference group even one year after discharge.Conclusion: The HRQoL had lower scores at discharge greatly improved one year after the treatment. This study also highlighted the usefulness of the HRQoL assessment for prognosis evaluation in patients after surgical treatment for LSS