Sök artiklar i SveMed+

Tidskrift

Sammanfattning

Patients scheduled for stabilising back surgery (spinal fusion) carry many negative experiences with them relating to their condition. Several of them refer, for example, to being adversely affected by hints that they were falsely gaining access to strong analgesics or welfare benefits. This gives rise to great insecurity and may even cause patients to conceal their pain, which may result in feelings of powerlessness and lack of faith in their own judgement. A diagnosis and surgery give credence to, and legitimise, the medical condition, and the patients consequently regard the two as the health service’s acknowledgement of their back pain. The recommendation and decision to undergo surgery are seen as a turning point that brings relief and the hope of being able to resume a normal life and be reinstated as a resource within the family and at work. However, for a number of patients the relief is short lived. The identity as a patient with back pain may be so all-consuming that it comes to define the individual. The effect of this may be difficulty in creating a new and meaningful daily existence after being discharged from hospital. It is important to give due attention to psychosocial and existential phenomena of this nature in communication between patients and healthcare professionals.

MeSH