Abstract

Introduction: Lumbar disc herniation is a common problem. The most challenging aspect of the surgical management is to decide whether a particular patient will benefit from surgical intervention or not. It is therefore essential to define preoperative predictive criteria for our population which will help us to determine which patient will benefit from surgery thereby avoiding unnecessary surgery.
Objectives: To determine the outcome of discectomy and fenestration in patients with lumbar prolapsed disc and to determine the relationship of different factors with outcome at one month of follow up.
Study design: Cross sectional study.
Setting: Department of Neurosurgery, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi.
Duration of study: Six months from 30 November 2008 to 30th May 2009.
Subjects and methods: This study was conducted on inpatients who are diagnosed case of prolapsed intervertebral disc between lumbar 4 and Lumbar 5 vertebrae and between Lumbar 5 and Sacral 1 vertebra. All patients underwent open fenestration and discectomy.
Results: Surgical outcome of patients was measured by using modified Macnab criteria. Overall 92 (93.80%) patients have good out come while only 6 (6.20%) patients had poor outcome. Only duration of leg pain has significant effects on surgical outcome (P

Key words: Lumbar prolapsed intervertebral disc, Surgical outcome, Preoperative factors