Group leaders: Dr. Gligor Gucev and Arif Pendi
Project summary:
Preoperative anxiety (PA) before spine surgery is experienced by virtually all patients. But, only recently has the relationship between PA and poor patient outcomes become clear. For example, highly anxious patients respond differently to anesthesia, consume more pain medication, and take longer to recover. However, there are no consensus guidelines to manage PA in spine surgery. This group believes that by building a multi-disciplinary team of spine surgeons, anesthesiologists, and psychiatrists, we will have a more robust and multi-disciplinary understanding of this complex issue and be well-suited to develop and implement management of PA in spine surgery.
The Spine Preoperative Anxiety Research Taskforce (SPARTA) aims to develop and maintain a multi-institution, multi-disciplinary team of spine surgeons, anesthesiologists, and psychiatrists for the purposes of studying and managing PA among patients undergoing spine surgery and other procedures.
Learn more about their work:
- Musa A, Wang JC, Acosta FL, Movahedi R, Melkonian A, Shahbazi A, Safani D, Gucev G. Attitudes of Spine Surgeons Regarding Management of Preoperative Anxiety: A Cross-sectional Study. Clin Spine Surg. 2019 Feb; 32(1):E1-E6. PMID: 30148730.
- Pendi A, Wang JC, Acosta FL, Movahedi R, Safani D, Shahbazi A, Melkonian A, Gucev G. Pre-operative anxiety management according to spine surgeons: Current management preferences [abstract]. In: The Anesthesiology Annual Meeting; 2018 Oct 14; University of California Irvine, Orange, CA. Schaumburg (IL): ASA; 2018. Abstract nr A2252.
- Pendi A, Wang JC, Acosta FL, Movahedi R, Safani D, Shahbazi A, Melkonian A, Gucev G. Pre-operative anxiety management in spine surgery. Poster presented at: 30th annual Psych Congress of the Psychiatry & Behavioral Health Learning Network; 2017 Sept 16-19; New Orleans, LA.
Contact information
Gligor Gucev, MD, EdD
Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology Department of Anesthesiology