A new study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine examines the outcomes for young patients with lumbar disc herniation who undergo surgery.
The study examined the national Swedish spine register. There were 180 patients included in the study who underwent surgery for lumbar disc herniation at 20 years old or younger and reported outcomes data for one year after surgery.
The patients were most often treated with open surgery and underwent their procedures from 2000 to 2010. The researchers found:
1. Only 4.5 percent of the patients were not satisfied with their outcomes.
2. The surgery normalized the quality of life for the patients in the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey.
3. The predictive factors for inferior outcomes scores were:
• Severe leg or back pain after surgery
• Low mental health before surgery
• Pronounced disability before surgery
4. In subjective grade satisfaction, only low mental health before surgery was associated with inferiority.
5. There weren't associations between preoperative leg pain, pain duration or health-related quality of life and the patient-reported outcome measures after surgery. These factors also weren't associated with the subjective grade of satisfaction.
"Lumbar disc herniation surgery in young patients generally yields a satisfactory outcome," concluded the study authors.