Along with her coauthors, University of Utah Professor of Neurosurgery Erica Bisson, MD, MPH, was recently recognized by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) for the 2021 Top Spine Paper of the Year — an annual award honoring articles of significant impact in the field and respective subspecialties that appeared in the journal Neurosurgery.
According to the website, “Winners submitted papers that challenged dogma, created a paradigm shift, and/or encouraged surgeons to rethink approaches to patient care, big data, and trial results.”
Originally published in the August 2020 issue of Neurosurgery, the paper “Sexual Dysfunction: Prevalence and Prognosis in Patients Operated for Degenerative Lumbar Spondylolisthesis” by Andrew K. Chan, MD, and a multi-institutional team of coauthors was selected for the award.
Nearly one-of-a-kind, their study sought to answer questions about the effect of Degenerative Lumbar Spondylolisthesis — a spinal condition in which one vertebra slips forward over the one below, and a common cause of lower back pain — on the sexual activity of patients pre- and postoperatively.
Using a prospective, multicenter registry, their analysis revealed higher satisfaction after surgery in patients that also showed improvement in sexual function. Sex life improvement was associated with greater satisfaction with surgery.
One of very few studies investigating sexual function as it pertains to spinal pathology, and the first to focus on the effects of degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis specifically, their results acknowledge the current lack of information on the subject, yet underscore the impact of surgical interventions, and the importance of sexual function towards the overall well-being of patients.
The paper will be presented at the 2021 CNS Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas on Monday, October 18, during the Section on Disorders of the Spine Session.