gms | German Medical Science

66th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)
Friendship Meeting with the Italian Society of Neurosurgery (SINch)

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

7 - 10 June 2015, Karlsruhe

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Post traumatic stress disorder symptoms following brain surgery. Is surgery really the reason?

Meeting Abstract

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  • Ehab Shiban - Neurochirurgische Klinik, Technische Universität München
  • Youssef Shiban - Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Regensburg
  • Corinna Kapp - Neurochirurgische Klinik, Technische Universität München
  • Leila Sahinovic - Neurochirurgische Klinik, Technische Universität München
  • Michael Eisenburger - Neurochirurgische Klinik, Technische Universität München
  • Verena Kammermeier - Neurochirurgische Klinik, Technische Universität München
  • Andreas Mühlberger - Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Regensburg
  • Florian Ringel - Neurochirurgische Klinik, Technische Universität München
  • Bernhard Meyer - Neurochirurgische Klinik, Technische Universität München

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 66. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC). Karlsruhe, 07.-10.06.2015. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2015. DocDI.12.02

doi: 10.3205/15dgnc152, urn:nbn:de:0183-15dgnc1520

Published: June 2, 2015

© 2015 Shiban et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objective: Recently, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSD) were attributed to surgery in patients following brain procedures. However, PTSD is seen in up to 15% of the normal population. Aim of this study is to evaluate the incidence of PTSD before and after brain surgery and the influence of PTSD on clinical outcome.

Method: A prospective study of patients undergoing elective spine surgery was performed. The patients were evaluated for PTSD using the PTSS score before surgery and 3 months postoperatively. In addition SF36 physical composite score (PCS), was completed preoperatively and at 3 months postoperatively. Incidence and influence of PTSD symptoms on clinical outcome were examined.

Results: 74 patients met all inclusion criteria. 34 patients were male (45.9%); mean age was 57 years. PTSD symptoms were reported in 29 patients (39.2%) before surgery. However, only 17 patients (23%) still had abnormal PTSS scores at 3 months follow-up. Only 4 patients (5%) developed PTSD symptoms only following surgery. PTSD was associated with worse clinical outcome before surgery (PCS: 41.7 vs. 48.4, P = 0.03). At three months follow-up patients with PTSD also had a worse clinical outcome (PCS: 38 vs 46.3, P = 0.004).

Conclusions: PTSD symptoms are associated with worse outcome before and after brain surgery. PTSD symptoms cannot be attributed to surgery as most patients had reported symptoms before surgery.

Note: Ehab Shiban and Youssef Shiban contributed equally.