early and delayed results of lumbar disc surgery in 314 patients

in a retrospective study the clinical presentations, neurological findings, contrast studies, operative findings, and the follow-up results of 314 patients with disc herniation were studied over a 10-year period. this disease was most frequent between the ages of 30 to 40 and mostly in males. low back pain with or without radicular pain was the most frequent symptom, involving the left leg in the majority of patients and the average duration of pain was more than a year. in this study l4 -l5 disc herniation had the highest frequency (50%). the most encouraging sign to perform myelography was motor deficit (57%). postoperatively, our patients were followed for an average of 12 months with excellent to good results noted in 96% of them. reherniation of a previously resected disc was noted only in two patients (0.6%). it is concluded that with precise selection wecould have more than 90% good results in a conventional method of disc surgery and the chances of recurrence are negligible.