[Intractable pain after lumbar intervertebral disc surgery (author's transl)]

A joint follow-up study of 3238 cases from 15 neurosurgical departments analyzed complications following lumbar disc surgery. One hundred cases of intractable pain were evaluated and correlated with the pre-, intra-, and postoperative findings of all patients with complications following lumbar disc surgery. The 100 cases with intractable pain are divided into 67 cases without and 33 cases with reoperation; these two groups are treated separately. In patients with intractable pain the following findings were more frequent and may be considered as risk factors: long preoperative period of complaints, discrepancy between sensory findings and level of operation, pronounced osteochondritic changes, extensive surgical intervention, and complaints without adequate neurologic findings. The poorest results after lumber disc surgery are discussed and compared with the literature.