“Just under 90 per cent of surgeons said more data was needed on the effectiveness of spinal surgeries compared with non-surgical treatments like physiotherapy and medications.
“Surgeons particularly called for greater scrutiny over lumbar fusion surgery for spinal stenosis.
“In fusion surgery spinal segments are fused together using spinal implants.
“Interestingly, we also found differences in the way these common operations are performed by Australian and European surgeons.
“We found that more European surgeons prefer minimally invasive spinal surgical procedures than Australian surgeons. Minimally invasive spine surgery is appealing, but we don’t yet have clinical studies to prove it is more effective.
“The survey shows that many Australian spine surgeons would not agree that these techniques are better.”
The study was a collaborative project also involving surgeons from Concord, Liverpool, Nepean hospitals, the University of New South Wales, and Prince of Wales Hospital.