Retrospective analysis of reoperation rate after standard lumbar discectomy and microdiscectomy - single center experience

Discectomy is a surgical procedure in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation (LDH) if sciatica or neurological deficits occur and still persist after a course of conservative therapy. Standard discectomy (SD) and microdiscectomy (MD) are still equal in curent clinical practice. Many retrospective and prospective studies have shown that there is no clinically significant difference in the functional outcome after two treatment modalities. The aim of our study was to determine whether there are differences in the incidence of reoperation after performing SD and MD. The research included 545 patients with average period of postoperative follow-up of approximately 5.75 years. Standard discectomy was performed in 393 patients (72.11%), and microdiscectomy in 152 (27.8%) patients. The total number of reoperated patients was 37/545, or 6.78%. In the SD group, the number of reoperated patients was 33/393 (8.39%) and in the MD group 4/152 or 2.63%. Statistically significant difference (p