ABSTRACT
Spinal surgery in specific clinical scenarios is extremely beneficial in symptomatic patients who fail to respond to nonoperative measures. A small percentage of patients may not improve or may worsen in terms of their subjective or objective complaints. Kostuik has described the ‘‘three W’s’’ of surgical failure: ‘‘The wrong patient, the wrong diagnosis and the wrong surgery.’’ In other words, accurate patient assessment and diagnosis, with resultant appropriate surgical intervention, will lessen the potential for surgical and postsurgical complications and decrease the need for revision surgery.
