Artificial intelligence in the prediction of operative findings in low back surgery.

In a prospective trial of 150 patients undergoing first time low back surgery for sciatica, the performance of a computer was compared to that of clinicians in predicting the likely operative findings. The results indicate that artificial intelligence techniques implemented on a computer can be used for predicting operative findings in low back surgery, can out-perform clinicians and can be used to develop better methods of human prediction.