Patient–Surgeon Expectation Mismatch in Cervical Spine Surgery

If you’ve ever sat in clinic, explained a cervical surgery in careful detail, nodded reassuringly through a patient’s long list of symptoms, and thought, “Yes, this is clear. We are definitely on the same page,” — this study is here to gently remind you: you probably weren’t.

One group of researchers dove into the messy, hopeful, occasionally delusional world of preoperative expectations, comparing what patients think will happen after cervical spine surgery vs. what their surgeons think will happen. Spoiler: the match rate was…let’s call it “not ideal.”