Table 2

Treatment characteristics and clinical outcomes by treatment group.

CharacteristicOperative (n = 14)Nonoperative (n = 13) P
Surgical technique
 Posterior spinal instrumentation and fusion11 (79%)--
 MIS posterior spinal instrumentation3 (21%)--
 Decompression1 (7%)--
Levels of surgical intervention
 29 (64%)-
 31 (7%)-
 44 (29%)-
Brace (thoracolumbar-sacral orthosis) prescribed-13 (100%)-
 Brace duration, d (n = 10)-54.6 (14.4)a -
Complications/unintended reoperations1 (7%)0 (0%)>0.99
Length of stay, d 7.6 (6.2)4.3 (4.3)0.12
Return to work, wk20.5 (15.9)b 11.8 (6.8)c 0.154
Follow-up duration, wk43.3 (53.2)10.8 (6.5)0.02d

  • Abbreviation: MIS, minimally invasive surgery.

  • Note: Data presented as mean (SD) for continuous variables and n (%) for categorical variables.

  • ↵a n = 10.

  • ↵b n = 8.

  • ↵c n = 9.

  • ↵d Kruskal-Wallis test used. Statistically significant at P < 0.05.