Surgical outcome and efficacy of lumbar microdiscectomy technique with preserving of ligamentum flavum for recurrent lumbar disc herniations

Abstract

The reoperation for recurrent lumbar disc herniation (LDH) causes difficulties and low surgical outcome. The operation technique which was preferred in the first surgery has gained importance in reoperation for recurrent-LDH. The aim of our study is to evaluate the efficacy of lumbar microdiscectomy technique with preserving of ligamentum flavum (LF) for recurrent lumbar disc surgery. 149 patients were evaluated in two groups in our study, who were treated for single level recurrent-LDH in our clinic. The first group contains 86 patients who were treated by lumbar microdiscectomy without preserving LF during first surgery in other clinics, the second group contains 63 patients who were treated by lumbar microdiscectomy with preserving of LF during first surgery in our clinic. We investigated age, weight, gender, recurrence-time, level-side of recurrent-LDH, the surgical outcomes and hemorrhage, complications, operation-time. The mean-age was 45,9 ± 12,9, 44,1 ± 11,6 years and mean-weight was 73,4 ± 14,4, 77,3 ± 14,2 kg in two groups. 29 patients were treated for L3-4, 63 patients for L4-5, 57 patients were treated for L5-S1 recurrent LDH. The preoperative and follow-up back-leg pain Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores decreased significantly in all patients (p < 0,05). The average operation-time was 70,9 ± 5,2 and 42,3 ± 4,6 min and the average surgical hemorrhage was 91,1 ± 11,3 and 50,3 ± 7,4 ml in 1. group and 2. group respectively. Preserving of LF in first surgery is gaining importance for recurrent lumbar disc surgery with protected anatomical structures. Our technique decreases complication, operation time, surgical hemorrhage and provides good surgical outcomes in recurrent lumbar disc surgery.