A Postoperative Phenomenon of Percutaneous Endoscopic Lumbar Discectomy: Rebound Pain

After percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD), most patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH) experience relief from the typical symptoms of low back and leg pain. However, for a small number of patients, these symptoms are relieved immediately after surgery but aggravated soon after, and then relieved after short-term full rest or conservative treatment. The aim of the study was to demonstrate this short-term recurrent phenomenon, termed rebound pain.

A retrospective study was conducted on 144 patients who underwent single-segment PELD from May 2017 to June 2020. Postoperative patients were divided into a rebound pain group and a non-rebound pain group. For the former group, general information, symptom characteristics and visual analogue score (VAS) changes in rebound pain were summarized. For both groups, postoperative efficacy was evaluated by recent VAS of low back and leg pain in the remission stage, the Oswestry disability index (ODI) and the modified MacNab criteria at the last follow-up. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify predictors for rebound pain.

The VAS and ODI exhibited significant improvements at the last follow-up of average 15.4 months (P < 0.001). The successful outcomes according to the modified MacNab criteria reached 94.4%. A total of 15 patients (10.4%) experienced rebound pain. The typical feature was pain that usually began within 1 month after surgery and lasted for less than 1 month. The symptoms were mainly leg pain with or without low back pain. The range of pain was equal to or less than that before surgery. The symptoms were relieved after conservative treatment. In logistic regression model, postoperative return-to-work time > 45 days was found as a protective factor for rebound pain (p = 0.031).

Although rebound pain with multiple characteristics and a short duration had no significant effect on long-term postoperative efficacy, its high incidence often caused unnecessary concern in both patients and doctors. As a result, careful differentiation of rebound pain from other postoperative complications is needed.