Evaluation of the clinical efficacy of routine spinal operations

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  An evaluation of the clinical efficacy and risk profile of routine spinal operations performed in the National Health Service

• IRAS ID

  324217

• Contact name

  Xavier Griffin

• Sponsor organisation

  Queen Mary University of London

• Duration of Study in the UK

  5 years, 6 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  Back pain is a common disorder affecting over three quarters of people at some point in their lives. Back pain drastically affects quality of life, preventing key activities such as walking, using the bathroom, exercise and sleeping. It also has crippling effects on the economy costing over £12 billion/year through lost hours at work, painkiller consumption and disability benefits.

  Despite this, spinal research remains underfunded and there is no understanding on how effective spinal surgery is in treating back pain and what the risk of complications are. All existing studies are severely limited by low numbers and follow up, with several calls for better research to be performed.

  We will analyse linked patient data routinely collected from hospitals (Hospital Episode of Statistics) and for spinal surgery recorded in the British Spine Registry. This will allow us to assess outcomes of commonly performed procedures. These include; Discectomy (removal of whole/part of spinal disc), Laminectomy (Removal of part of spine bone to relieve pressure on nerves), Lumbar fusion (Fusion of bones in the spine), Kyphoplasty (expansion of collapsed bones in the spine) and Intervertebral disc replacement (replace bulging spine disc).

  We will study the rate of repeat surgery, complications, pain and function after surgery. Our research will allow us to assess whether there are surgical factors which can be changed to help improve outcomes. It will also give us insight into why surgery fails and whether there are particular groups of patients who are more likely to be affected. This will help surgeons provide more tailored patient care, potentially reduce repeat surgeries and improve patient outcomes, whilst empowering patients to make more informed decisions. Finally the results of this work will help guide healthcare providers into which treatments are most effective.

• REC name

  North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  23/NE/0109

• Date of REC Opinion

  19 Jun 2023

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion