Evaluating patient outcome post tubular lumbar microdiscectomy

摘要

Patients complaining of lumbar radiculopathy are a frequent referral to spine surgeons. The most common cause of this problem is a herniated lumbar disc that on MRI imaging is seen impinging on a lumbar nerve root [1]. While the majority of these disc herniations resolve with 6 weeks of conservative treatment there are a group of patients who fail to improve and have refractory persistent neuropathic pain and weakness, in the dermatomal distribution and myotome of the involved nerve root, making them candidates for operative decompression [2,3].