Project 458582

Lumbar Spinal Stenosis (LSS) is a painful condition of the lower back. It is caused by narrowing of the spinal canal that holds the spinal cord, spinal nerves and blood vessels. This narrowing may lead to compression of nerves resulting in back and leg pain. LSS is the most common condition in adults over 55 years old, and the most common reason for back surgery in Canada. Unfortunately, many patients who have had surgery for LSS continue to experience pain, loss of function, and continued use of narcotic medication. Pre-surgical rehabilitation (prehabilitation) has shown to have a small effect in improving surgical results after back surgery. We plan to develop a patient-centered prehabilitation program for people with LSS that aims to improve post-surgical pain, function and overall outcomes of surgery. The proposed study will include the development and testing of the prehabilitation program. We will have an initial meeting with patients who have had LSS surgery, surgeons, physiatrists, nurses, physiotherapists and healthcare administrators to finalize the program and develop a study protocol. We will then enroll 60 patients with LSS to test the prehabilitation program. We will evaluate how many participants agreed to participate over a period of 6 months, participation in the program, use questionnaires to measure pain and function outcomes, and asses the burden associated with filling out questionnaires. We will also conduct interviews to explore participants' experience of the program, their recovery, and outcomes. This study will support the initial testing of a program that has potential to improve pain, function and quality of life in a large number of older adults in Canada and worldwide. If this program is practical, we will use the results of this study to conduct a larger clinical trial to rigorously examine whether this prehabilitation program is effective, or not, for improving post- surgical pain, function and overall outcomes.