Relationship of anxiety-related symptoms with pain, disability and postoperative period after degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis surgery

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigates the anxiety symptom levels of patients who underwent surgery due to degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (DLSS), and the relationship between anxiety symptoms and postoperative pain, disability, and time elapsed after surgery was investigated. Materials and methods: The research study group comprises 71 patients, and the control group comprises 65 healthy individuals. In the study, the pain, disability, and anxiety symptom levels of the patients were evaluated. Postoperative State Anxiety Inventory (SAI) and Trait Anxiety Inventory (TAI) scores of DLSS patients and healthy individuals were compared. The variability of the anxiety scores of the individuals in the study group was analyzed in separate groups divided according to gender, postoperative period, pain, and disability scores. Patients were divided into two groups: painful (VAS >6) and pain-free (VAS <7), according to Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores representing pain levels. Results: The results show that the patient's anxiety symptom levels are higher than the healthy controls and that anxiety scores increase even more in patients with high pain and disability scores. Higher pain and disability scores were associated with higher SAI scores. Moreover, it was found that both the painful early postoperative and painful late postoperative groups had higher SAI scores compared to the pain-free early postoperative and pain-free late postoperative groups. Conclusion: These findings emphasize the importance of considering pain, physical disabilities, and anxiety symptoms together in supporting the postoperative recovery process. It can be said that holistic approaches focusing on pain, physical disabilities and anxiety can positively affect recovery. More extensive and prospective studies are needed to elucidate the causal relationship between these concepts.

Keywords

• Anxiety
• disability
• pain
• spinal stenosis
• surgery

Dejeneratif lomber spinal stenoz cerrahisi sonrası anksiyete ilişkili semptomlar ile ağrı, engellilik ve postoperatif süre arasındaki ilişki

Abstract

Amaç: Bu çalışmada dejeneratif lomber spinal stenoz (DLSS) nedeniyle ameliyat geçiren hastaların anksiyete ilişkili semptom düzeyleri ve bu durumun ameliyat sonrası ağrı, engellilik ve ameliyattan sonra geçen süre ile ilişkisi araştırılmıştır. Gereç ve yöntem: Araştırma çalışma grubu 71 hastadan, kontrol grubu ise 65 sağlıklı bireyden oluşmaktadır. Çalışmada hastaların ağrı, sakatlık ve anksiyete ilişkili semptom düzeyleri değerlendirilmiştir. DLSS hastalarının ve sağlıklı bireylerin Postoperatif Durumluk Anksiyete Envanteri (DAE) ve Süreklilik Anksiyete Envanteri (SAE) puanları karşılaştırılmıştır. Çalışma grubundaki bireylerin anksiyete puanlarının değişkenliği cinsiyete, ameliyat sonrası geçmiş olan süreye, ağrıya ve sakatlık puanlarına göre ayrı gruplar halinde analiz edilmiştir. Hastalar ağrı düzeylerini temsil eden Görsel Analog Skala (VAS) puanlarına göre ağrılı (VAS >6) ve ağrısız (VAS <7) olmak üzere iki gruba ayrılmıştır. Bulgular: Sonuçlar hastaların anksiyete semptom düzeylerinin sağlıklı kontrollerden daha yüksek olduğunu ve yüksek ağrı ve sakatlık puanına sahip hastalarda anksiyete puanlarının daha da arttığını göstermektedir. Daha yüksek ağrı ve sakatlık puanları daha yüksek DAE puanlarıyla ilişkilendirildi. Dahası hem ağrılı erken postoperatif hem de ağrılı geç postoperatif gruplarının ağrısız erken postoperatif ve ağrısız geç postoperatif gruplarına kıyasla daha yüksek DAE puanlarına sahip olduğu bulundu. Sonuç: Bu bulgular, postoperatif iyileşme sürecini desteklemede ağrı, fiziksel sakatlıklar ve anksiyete semptomlarının birlikte ele alınmasının önemini vurgulamaktadır. Ağrıya, fiziksel sakatlıklara ve anksiyeteye odaklanan bütünsel yaklaşımların iyileşmeyi olumlu yönde etkileyebileceği söylenebilir. Bu kavramlar arasındaki nedensel ilişkiyi açıklamak için daha kapsamlı ve prospektif çalışmalara ihtiyaç vardır.

Keywords

• Anksiyete
• engellilik
• ağrı
• spinal stenoz
• ameliyat

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