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Outpatient Surgery E-Weekly

Unlicensed Cosmetic Surgery Hospitalizes 6 in N.J.

New Jersey medical authorities are investigating the incidence of and issuing alerts on unlicensed cosmetic surgery providers after 6 women suffered...

Rotator Cuff Repair Restores Strength, Not Function

Rotator cuff surgery may restore a patient's normal shoulder strength, but mobility issues persist in the repaired joint, according to researchers a...

Do Patients Expect Too Much From Joint Replacement?

Even with a thorough pre-op education program, more than two-thirds of joint replacement patients don't share the expectations that their surgeons d...

Home > News > September, 2009
Patients Given Post-op Souvenir Fare Better
Study shows giving lumbar microdiscectomy patients a piece of their excised disc can improve outcomes.

Neurosurgical researchers at St. George's University of London have discovered a "cheap and effective way" to improve outcomes after lumbar microdiscectomy: Let patients see and feel the results of their procedures.

The researchers hypothesized that patients undergoing lumbar microdiscectomy would heal better if they were give pieces of the excised disc material after surgery. Their prospective, double blind, randomized, controlled trial showed they were correct: The 38 patients who received disc fragments were more likely to report improved leg pain, back pain, limb weakness, paraesthesia and less analgesic use than the 36 patients who did not receive the surgical souvenirs.

"This study adds to the increasing evidence that beliefs have a marked impact on how the symptoms of an illness manifest themselves," writes clinical and research psychologist Vaughan Bell, PhD, on the neuroscience and psychology blog Mind Hacks. The study has been published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

Irene Tsikitas

Categories: Spine/Neurosurgery, News
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