Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features Harvard MedTech’s highlighting of two studies in the peer-reviewed Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine that note workers’ compensation patients undergoing spine surgery fare worse post-surgery than other patients undergoing the same procedures.
Chief Medical Officer Gerry Stanley, MD, an author on both studies, noted that they confirm workers’ comp patients are significantly more likely to experience greater pain and residual disability, as well as delayed return to work than other patients who have the same procedures. The most recent of the studies found that workers’ comp patients with 1 – 4-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF), had significantly lower one-year post-op improvement metrics, RTW rates, and satisfaction, even though they had fewer comorbidities and were younger.