• Samuel Romero-Vargas, Claudia Obil-Chavarria, Barón Zárate-Kalfopolus, Luis Miguel Rosales-Olivares, Armando Alpizar-Aguirre, and Alejandro Antonio Reyes-Sánchez.
• Servicio de Cirugía de Columna, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación, Secretaría de Salud, México D.F., México.
• Cir Cir. 2015 Mar 1; 83 (2): 117-23.

BackgroundFailed back surgery syndrome is a complication of spine surgery that leads to chronic pain and disability, often with disastrous emotional consequences to the patient.AimTo compare the profile of patients whose first surgery was performed in our hospital versus a group that underwent first spine surgery in a different centre.MethodsRetrospective study with 65 patients; 18 formed group I (first spine surgery performed in our institution), and 47 patients in group II (first surgery performed in another hospital). Background, demographic, clinical features and functional status were compared. In group I the majority of the cases had a previous diagnosis of lumbar stenosis (group I 44.4% vs group II 25.5% p = 0.22), whereas disk herniation was the main diagnosis in group II (group I 22.2% vs group II 61.7% p = 0.001). The main cause of the syndrome in group I was technical error during surgery (61.1%), while in group II this cause represented only 6.3% (p=.001). Among the patients of this latter group, misdiagnosis was highly prevalent (57.4%), against no cases in group I (p=.001). The preoperative functional status between both groups and their recovery in the immediate postoperative period was similar (p = 0.68).ConclusionsThis study suggests that the diagnostic and treatment standards are different between healthcare centres, specifically between academic centres vs. private practice.Copyright © 2015 Academia Mexicana de Cirugía A.C. Published by Masson Doyma México S.A. All rights reserved.

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