Who is suitable for open lumbar disc herniation surgery?

Lumbar disc herniation is an extremely common and extremely harmful disease. There are many clinical treatment methods, but if you want to cure it completely, it is best to use open discectomy, which is very effective. However, not all patients are suitable for this method. If conservative treatment is ineffective, open discectomy can be used. After the operation, you should pay attention to rehabilitation, diet, etc.

What is the success rate of open discectomy?

Medical research shows that 80%-90% of patients treated with open discectomy have good results. Studies have also shown that patients with radicular pain that radiates to the calf experience greater pain relief after open discectomy than patients with low back pain.

To maximize the effectiveness of the procedure, open discectomy is reserved for patients with persistent, severe, and/or disabling hip pain, leg pain, or weakness. If your back or leg pain does not meet the above levels, open discectomy may not be suitable for you, and conservative or minimally invasive treatments may be effective.

Who needs open discectomy?

Not all patients with lumbar disc herniation require open discectomy. Most patients can relieve pain with conservative treatment such as rest, physical therapy, anti-inflammatory drugs and epidural injections. However, pain sometimes does not respond to these treatments, necessitating more aggressive interventions.

If back and leg pain does not respond to conservative treatment and persists for 4 to 6 weeks or longer, your doctor should order diagnostic tests, such as X-rays, MRI, or CT scans, to confirm the source of the pain and the extent of the injury. If a herniated disc is diagnosed, an open discectomy is recommended.

The way certain procedures in spine surgery are performed is currently undergoing a transformation. Discectomy can now be done endoscopically using specialized instruments through smaller incisions under local anesthesia. This type of surgery can be recommended for some simple cases, but if the disc herniation is large, or the disc fragments or surrounding bones are damaged, and the pain or weakness symptoms are severe, open discectomy is still considered the "gold standard" of treatment in the spine field. Open discectomy allows the surgeon to see and expose the surgical field to the greatest extent.