Predictability of the result of surgical intervention in patients with low back pain.

Patients who were to undergo surgical intervention for low back pain were investigated preoperatively. The effect of surgical intervention was determined after 6 months. The judgement of the neurosurgeon and of the patients themselves were used to assign patients to three outcome categories: satisfactory, moderate and unsatisfactory. Differences in several psychological and biological factors were found between the three categories. On the basis of preoperatively assembled data on psychological and other variables it is possible to predict the outcome of surgical intervention in 80% of the patients.