[Single-segment lumbar microdiscectomy:drainage or not]

To evaluate the safety and feasibility of single-segment lumbar microdiscectomy without drainage.

The clinical data of 135 patients with single-segment lumbar disc herniation treated by microdiscectomy surgery from January 2018 to August 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 95 males and 40 females, aged from 18 to 40 years old, with a mean of (28.3±5.4) years. They were divided into drainage group (78 cases) and non-drainage group (57 cases) according to whether the drainage tube was placed during operation. The general conditions of patients were recorded such as age, gender, operation segment, body mass index(BMI), symptom duration, follow-up time, operation time, intraoperative blood loss, out-of-bed time, hospital stay, postoperative drainage removal time and drainage volume of drainage group, postoperative body temperature. VAS of incisional pain in supine resting state on the 1 and 3 days after operation, the VAS of low back pain and lower extremity radiating pain during ground exercise before operation, 3 days, 1 month and 3 months after operation were compared. Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) was collected before operation, 1 month and 3 months after operation. The ratio of complications was calculated such as symptomatic incision hematoma, poor incision healing, incision infection, exacerbation and progressive aggravation of neurological dysfunction, and unplanned secondary surgery.

There were no significant differences in age, gender, operation segment, BMI, symptom duration, follow-up time, operation time, intraoperative blood loss, and postoperative body temperature between two groups. The average hospital stay and out-of-bed time in non-drainage group were shorter than in drainage group(P=0.0000). VAS of incision pain in non-drainage group was lower than that in control group at 1 and 3 days after surgery (P<0.05). Postoperative low back pain VAS and ODI of all patients were significantly reduced compared with those before surgery. No symptomatic hematoma occurred in two groups. Postoperative neurological dysfunction immediately aggravated each one patient in two groups, and no progressive aggravation of neurological function was found in two groups. Incision infection occurred in one case in each of the two groups, and both were cured by drug treatment; poor incision healing occurred in one case in each of the two groups, and both were healed after repeated dressing changes. There was one case of unplanned second operation in drainage group, the patient received a second operation due to disc protrusion recurrence within 1 month.

Single-segment lumbar microdiscectomy without drainage can shorten the average hospital stay and promote early exercise out of bed, and reduce the trauma and stress reaction of drainage. No drainage may be an option for patients with enhanced recovery after lumbar microdiscectomy.