Short-term outcome after microdiscectomy for lumbar disc herniation – a single centre study

Abstract

Introduction. Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is a common cause of back pain and leg pain. For more than 60 years, standard discectomy by fenestration has been used to treat LDH. In his study, three commonly used scales were used to assess the outcome after microdiscectomy, such as the Low Back Pain Rating Scale (LBPRS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study analyzing treatment results at 3 months after microdiscectomy. Materials and method. During almost 5 years, a total of 327 patients underwent microdiscectomy operations for single level disc disease. Of these, 286 patients were available for 3-mounth follow-up. All patients were operated on at the Neurosurgery Department in the Specialist Hospital in Sandomierz, Poland. Before surgery and 3 months after burgery, all patients were asked to complete LBPRS, ODI and VAS scales. The statistical analysis used was p2, the effect size indicator for ANOVA. Results. Significant improvement was observed in all scales used 3 months after surgery. Conclusions. There are new, minimally invasive percutaneous techniques available, such as percutaneous laser disc decompression and intradiscal injection of radiopaque gelified ethanol. There are also trials with platelet-rich plasma or mesenchymal stem cells injected into the disc, aimed at the restoration of healthy disc properties. The hypothesis that metabolic products of bacteria propionibacterium acnes can contribute to disc degeneration inspired attempts at antibiotic therapy This study was conducted on a large group of patients and confirmed that discectomy is the recommended method of surgery which produces good treatment results in 3-mounths follow-up.