Contact:
Pamela McDonnell
Media Relations
NYU Medical Center
(212) 404-3555
Email: Pamela.Mcdonnell@nyumc.org

NYU INVESTIGATOR FOR NEJM STUDY ON SURGERY VS. NO SURGERY FOR BACK PAIN SAYS
SURGERY SHOWS CLEAR BENEFITS

NEW YORK, NY – May 29, 2007 – Thomas Errico, MD, Chief, Division of Spine Surgery at NYU/Hospital for Joint Diseases and Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Neurosurgery at the NYU School of Medicine, is available to discuss Surgical vs. Non-Surgical Treatment for Degenerative Spine Spondylolithesis, a study in the May 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, for which he was the primary investigator at NYU Medical Center. According to Dr. Errico the study--the second of three in the SPORT Trial (Spine Patient Outcome Research Trials) -- found significant benefits for patients who underwent surgery for this degenrative condition in which vertebrae slip leading to back and leg pain with a high degree of disability. 

"It's important to understand which conditions benefit from surgery," says Dr. Errico, noting that a major study that recently looked at the cost of cardiac catherization found that non-operative care was just as good. "In this study we found that surgery is far more effective than non-operative care, which includes physical therapy, injections and medication.”  Dr. Errico notes that the prospective cohort study was originally supposed to be a randomized trial, but crossovers of patients who opted in and out of surgery led to its reclassification.  "Obviously, patients with more severe pain opted for surgery and those who were less affected chose non-surgical care," he says, adding that the results were statistically significant.  "If you looked at patients on a disability scale between one and 100, very disabled patients began at 45 and got 25 points of improvement after surgery.  Non-operative patients who began at 36 on the disability scale, had a 7.5 point improvement.  This study solidifies what spine surgeons have been saying all along; people who have surgery are getting better."

Dr. Errico can provide a patient.

###