Concomitant back pain as a predictor of outcome after single level lumbar micro-decompressive surgery - A study of 995 patients

G Sethi; A Aljawadi; M N Choudhry; B Fischer; H M Divecha; J Leach; F Arnall; R Verma; N Yasin; S Mohammad; I Siddique

doi:10.1016/j.jor.2019.08.013

Concomitant back pain as a predictor of outcome after single level lumbar micro-decompressive surgery - A study of 995 patients

J Orthop. 2019 Aug 14;16(6):478-482. doi: 10.1016/j.jor.2019.08.013. eCollection 2019 Nov-Dec.

Authors

G Sethi^{1

2}, A Aljawadi³, M N Choudhry⁴, B Fischer⁵, H M Divecha⁶, J Leach⁷, F Arnall⁸, R Verma⁹, N Yasin⁹, S Mohammad⁹, I Siddique⁹

Affiliations

¹ Trauma and Orthopaedics- Spinal, University of Salford, Salford, Manchester, UK.
² School of Health Sciences Allerton Building, University of Salford, Fredrick Road Campus, M6 6PU, UK.
³ Trauma and Orthopaedics, University of Salford, Salford, Fredrick Road Campus, M6 6PU, UK.
⁴ Spinal Registrar, Department of Spinal Surgery, Salford Royal NHS Trust, Stott Lane, Salford, M6 8HD, UK.
⁵ StR Trauma & Orthopaedics, UK.
⁶ StR Trauma & Orthopaedics, North Western Deanery, UK.
⁷ Consultant Neurosurgeon, Department of Neutosurgery, Salford Royal NHS Trust, Stott Lane, Salford, M6 8HD, UK.
⁸ Consultant Physiotherapist. Lecturer Fellow Higher Education Academy, MSc Trauma & Orthopaedics Academic Module Lead, School of Health Sciences Allerton Building C711, University of Salford, Fredrick Road Campus, M6 6PU, UK.
⁹ Consultant Spinal Surgeon, Department of Spinal Surgery, Salford Royal NHS Trust, Stott Lane, Salford, M6 8HD, UK.

Abstract

Objective: To determine if preoperative leg pain and low back pain severity affected postoperative outcome.

Method: Prospectively collected Spine-Tango data was analysed for 995 consecutive patients who underwent a primary, single level, lumbar micro-decompression/microdiscectomy at a single tertiary spinal centre.

Result: At 3 months, 72% of patients were satisfied with the outcome of surgery. Pre-operative low back pain was a significant predictor of poor outcome (P < 0.01).

Conclusion: Our study has shown that patients with a low back pain VAS of 6 or more have a significantly greater chance of a poor outcome following primary lumbar microdecompressive/microdiscectomy surgery.

Keywords: Back pain; Lumbar disc herniation; Micro-discectomy; Outcome; Radicular pain.