The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society
-
Multicenter Study
Prognostic factors for return to work in patients with sciatica.
Little is known about the prognostic factors for work-related outcomes of sciatica caused by disc herniation. ⋯ The baseline factors associated with RTW identified in multivariate analysis were age, general health, history of sciatica, duration of the current episode, baseline sciatica bothersomeness, fear-avoidance work, back pain, and the straight-leg-raising test result. Surgical treatment was associated with slower RTW, but surgical patients were more severely affected than patients treated without surgery; so, this finding should be interpreted with caution.