Surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A multicenter observational study

Abstract

Objective: To compare clinical outcomes following microdecompression surgery or laminectomy for central lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) be-tween patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and patients without rheumatic disease.Material and Methods: Data were collected from the Norwegian Registry for Spine Surgery. The primary outcome was change in the Os-westry Disability Index (ODI) score at 1 year. The secondary endpoints were health-related quality of life that was measured using the Euro-Qol-5D (EQ-5D), back pain numerical rating scale (NRS), leg pain NRS, and complications. Results: A total of 1433 patients were included (1396 controls and 37 patients with RA). For all the patients, there was an improvement in ODI score 16.7 points; 95% confidence interval (CI), 15.7, 17.7; p=8 points ODI score improvement) compared with 65.5% (n=19) of patients with RA (p=0.726). Conclusion: Patients with RA experienced similar and large improvements in patient-reported outcomes following surgical decompression for LSS compared with patients without rheumatic disease. There was no increased risk of complications in patients with RA