A study of functional outcome of laminectomy and discectomy in lumbar intervertebral disc prolapse (a comparison of retrospective and prospective analysis)

• Published in: Journal of Health and Allied Sciences NU Vol. 5; no. 4; pp. 062 - 065
• Main Authors: Shetty, Sanath Kumar, Ballal, Arjun, Mathias, Lawrence John, Rai, H. Ravindranath
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: A-12, Second Floor, Sector -2, NOIDA -201301, India Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Private Ltd 01.12.2015
• Subjects: Original Article; Laminectomy; radiculopathy; lumbar disc prolapse; Oswestry disability index; cauda equina
• ISSN: 2582-4287; 2582-4953
• DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1703937

Abstract Background: Back pain is considered as one of the most unrewarding problems in clinical medicine. There have existed several etiologies for the same and most of them do not have an ideal clinical presentation. Only those syndromes associated with neurologic compression of the cauda equina or nerve roots, have reasonably well understood clinical presentation. Aims: The aim of the study was to analyse and compare the functional outcome of laminectomy and discectomy in lumbar intervertebral disc prolapse in short and long term follow up. Materials and methods: Our study included a total of 50 diagnosed cases of lumbar intervertebral disc prolapse between age group of 40-70 years. The patients were subdivided into two groups. The first group was a retrospective group and included patients who had undergone laminectomy and discectomy between January 1993 and December 2003 with an average follow up of 3.68 years. Group two (prospective group) consisted of patients between January 2004 and December 2004 who underwent laminectomy and discectomy, with a follow up of 6 months. The subjective assessment was done using the Oswestry disability index (O.D.I). the results obtained with assessment of group I and group II were tabulated compared. Statistical analysis was done using the chi square test. Results: The results were noted to be 76% excellent, 8% good and 16% with poor scores in group I. 96% with excellent, no patients with good scores and 4% with poor scores in group II as per the O.D.I. Conclusion: We conclude saying that laminectomy and discectomy had excellent outcome in terms of pain relief in terms of long term and short term follow up.