Short-Term Outcome of Conservative Treatment in Athletes with Symptomatic Lumbar Disc Herniation

Abstract

The results of this study suggest that the short-term outcome of conservative treatment in athletes with symptomatic lumbar disc herniation may be satisfactory in terms of control of the symptoms and the ability of the athletes to return to their original sporting activities and that the subjective symptoms before treatment may be a key factor influencing the success of the conservative management. Randomized controlled trials, or even comparative follow-up studies, are needed to confirm our results.

Epidural Steroid Injection for Lumbar Disc Herniation in NFL Athletes

“…A recent performance-based outcome study after lumbar discectomy in professional American football players found that 78% of players treated surgically retumed to play in at least one NFL game (17). A short-term outcome study of conservative management in athletes from a variety of sports other than football reported a similar 79% retum to play at an average of almost 5 months (19). Our study compares favorably, with 89% in the current series retuming to play.…”

“…Third, there was no control group, and one could argue that players may have retumed to play without injection. However, on the basis of a previous study of conservative management without injection, an average time of almost 5 months for retum to play was required (19). Finally, our study did not monitor other treatment modalities done in conjunction with the epidural steroid injections (i.e., use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy, etc.).…”

“…Management can be challenging in high-demand athletes, particularly when the goal of treatment is early return to play. Return to play after conservative treatment of athletes with symptomatic lumbar disc hemiation has been reported to be 79% at an average of 4.7 months (19). Similarly, surgical treatment studies of lumbar disc hemiation report return to play for elite college athletes and professional football players at 74%-90% but do not specify a time frame (17,34).…”

Back Pain in Adolescent Athletes

“…For conservative treatment, return to sports is usually in 3 to 6 months; 1 study showed an average of 4.7 months. 27 Another study reported that recovery may be longer for microdiscectomy, with averages ranging from 5.2 to 5.8 months, and for percutaneous discectomy, recovery may range from 7 weeks to 12 months. 28 …”

Thoracolumbar Injuries in Pediatric Athletes: Diagnosis, Treatment, Rehabilitation, and Prevention

“…1 Central disc hernia in a young football player conservative or surgical treatment (Iwamoto et al 2006(Iwamoto et al , 2010Hsu 2011;Roberts et al 2011;Watkins et al 2012) (Table 2). …”