About the Authors

Nina S. Korse

n.s.korse@lumc.nl

Affiliation Department of Neurosurgery, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands

Anna B. Veldman

Affiliation Department of Neurosurgery, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands

Wilco C. Peul

Affiliations Department of Neurosurgery, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands, Department of Neurosurgery, Haaglanden Medical Center, the Hague, the Netherlands

Carmen L. A. Vleggeert-Lankamp

Affiliation Department of Neurosurgery, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands

Competing Interests

Outside the submitted work, Dr Vleggeert-Lankamp and Dr Peul report the following interests: National Health organisation sponsors a trial on treatment of cervical radiculopathy, and has been paying a trial on the treatment of spinal stenosis. Braun sponsors a study after the surgical treatment of cervical discectomies. Medtronic sponsors a study after the surgical treatment of spondylolytic listhesis. Paradigm Spine sponsors a study after the surgical treatment of spinal stenosis. These are all Investigator Initiated trials. The payment is not made to private accounts but to the research department only. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: NSK WCP CLAVL. Data curation: NSK. Formal analysis: NSK. Investigation: NSK ABV. Methodology: NSK CLAVL. Project administration: NSK CLAVL. Resources: NSK CLAVL WCP. Supervision: CLAVL WCP. Visualization: NSK. Writing – original draft: NSK. Writing – review & editing: NSK ABV WCP CLAVL.