[Surgery for lumbar disk hernia after chemonucleolysis. Results and analysis. Apropos of 100 cases]

We studied the clinical results of 100 patients operated after failure of chemonucleolytic treatment with chemopapain for lumbosciatica caused by disk herniation. Secondary surgical procedures were performed because of persistence of sciatic pain and disk herniation visible on CT scan. Post-operative follow-up was done at a minimum of one year. Clinical results were analyzed according to the criteria of Mac-Naff. Out of 100 patients who were re-operated, there were: 14% excellent results, 38% good results, 26 mediocre results, and lastly 22% failures or worsening of the condition. Thus 52% satisfactory compared to 75-95% when surgery is done immediately; 48% of the results were unsatisfactory or worse than before. We analyzed the mechanism of action of papain and suggested a pathophysiological explanation for these results. We concluded that chemonucleolysis with chemopapain cannot be an intermediary step between systematic medical treatment and surgical treatment.