Re-operation after Lumbar Disc Surgery: Results in 85 Cases

In this retrospective study, 85 patients previously operated on for lumbar disc herniation who had undergone re-operation due to persistent pain or recurrence of the symptoms were investigated. The surgical findings were: recurrent herniation (20%), epidural fibrosis alone (36.4%), small recurrent herniation with epidural fibrosis (28.2%), herniation at another level (10.6%), spinal stenosis (2.4%), lumbar pseudomeningocele (1.2%) and adhesive arachnoiditis (1.2%). The overall success rate of re-operation was 60%. The best results were obtained in recurrent disc herniation (47.1 % excellent and 35.3 % good results) and in herniation at another level (77.8% excellent and 22.2 % good). Re-operation in epidural fibrosis had less-satisfactory results (29.1 % excellent and 12.9 % good)