Outcome analyses in 1072 surgically treated lumbar disc herniations

This article reports the outcomes of 1072 consecutive patients surgically treated during a ten-year period. There are many new techniques for the treatment for lumbar disc hernia, but also the conventional standard discectomy procedure is still the most acceptable method today. 1072 consecutive, non-randomized patients with lumbar disc herniation were reviewed for a clinical retrospective study about the surgical outcome according to our functional grading system. The patients reported ruptured disc to be due to lifting (30.13%), trauma (9.42%), and sports (8.11%). Almost all patients had complained of radicular pain in a dermatomal distribution (90.39%) and 86.07% had low-back pain, 5.2% of the patients had complications. Eighty-five patients (7.92%) had a second lumbar disc operation. Thirty of these eighty-five patients underwent the operation at the same level. Patients were also rated to improve the ability. Almost 91% of the patients had excellent, good, and satisfactory outcome; 9% of patients had moderate and poor categories of outcome. Several conclusions can be drawn from this large series of patients who were operated for lumbar disc herniation. 1. Most patients had good-to-excellent surgical outcomes after lumbar discectomy. 2. The results of disc surgery depend not only upon operative technique and skill, the degree of neurological impairment but also upon the correct selection of cases.