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

Sethi, G; Aljawadi, A; Choudhry, M N; Fischer, B; Divecha, H M; Leach, J; Arnall, F; Verma, R et al. · J Orthop · 2019

prospective_cohort · Level II

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Abstract

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

Anatomy