TOP

YOUR SPINE TREATMENT CALCULATOR

This calculator will give you information about how well you might do with surgery or non-surgical treatment for your lower back-related pain. We calculate scores based on your answers to a few questions about physical function, pain, and overall health. We then show how SPORT patients with similar scores did on average with either surgical or non-surgical treatment.

The answers you provide will result in a graph that shows:

Your current score as a dot on the left side of the graph;
One line showing the scores after surgery of patients from SPORT. These patients had the same score when they entered the study as you do today.
Each dot on the line shows how well patients who had surgery did at each time period: 3 months, 6 months, 1 and 2 years;
The second line shows the same as the first line for SPORT patients who had non-operative treatment.

Choose your diagnosis below. You will be taken to a screen where you will answer a few questions about your current physical function, back pain, or overall health. Answering these questions and getting your results should only take 2-3 minutes.

Your Diagnosis

Herniated Disc: A vertebral disc a soft gel-like structure with a normally strong covering that sits between each vertebra in your back and acts like a cushion. A herniated disc happens when this disc has broken down and part of it is pressing on a nerve. The pressure causes pain that most often runs from your back through your buttocks and down one leg.

Spinal Stenosis: If you have been diagnosed with spinal stenosis, you most likely have a pinched nerve, usually from arthritis in your back. Your pain is generally in your lower back and it may also shoot down your leg from your buttocks when you walk, but not when you're sitting.

Degenerative Spondylolisthesis: Or DS for short, is a condition in which one or more vertebrae move out of place, usually forward, and cause pain similar to that felt with spinal stenosis (see above).

FOR ALL DIAGNOSES: In order for this calculator to give you the most accurate information, your condition should match that of SPORT patients as closely as possible. SPORT patients:

Had their symptoms for longer than 6 weeks
Were eligible for surgery. In other words, their overall health was good, and they had NOT improved dramatically with non-operative care.
Had NO previous lumbar spine surgery
Had NO active tumors (cancer)
Were NOT pregnant
Had NO fracture, infection, deformity and/or instability of the spine.
Were older than 18

If you have any comments or questions about using the calculator, please
email us.

PLEASE NOTE: Information provided:

Should not be taken as medical advice;
Does not establish a doctor-patient or other relationship;
Is not intended or should be assumed to guarantee a specific result.

Our goal is to provide people with meaningful information to make informed decisions about their health and health care.

SPORT is funded in part by The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (U01-AR45444-01A1) and the Office of Research on Women's Health, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center in Musculoskeletal Diseases is funded by NIAMS (P60-AR048094-01A1).