Background:

Herniated lumbar disc is one of the common causes of back pain. Discectomy provides rapid relief of back pain and radicular pain. Few studies have been done in our setting to look for the outcome of discectomy. The purpose of this study was to assess the outcome of discectomy.

Methods:

This prospective cross-sectional hospital-based study was carried out on Soba Teaching Hospital and Future hospitals in Khartoum, Sudan. Sixty-one patients with lumbar discectomy were included in this study, collected data through a direct interviewing questionnaire and took some information from patients’ files. Then collected data were analyzed using the statistical package for social science (SPSS) 24.

Results:

In sixty-one patients with lumbar discectomy of them, 24(39.3%) were within the age group 31-45 years old, 21(34.4%) were within the age group 46-50 years old, and 10(16.4%) were within age group 51-65years old. Results showed a male-to-female ratio of 1.5:1. The most common presenting symptoms were right Leg pain or numbness in 14(23%) patients. In the majority, 33(54.1%) of patients, the duration of symptoms was 6-12 months, 46(75.4%) underwent discectomy only, and 15(24.6%) underwent discectomy with fusion. Preoperatively, the majority of 30(49.1%) patients had a complete disability, 26(42.6%) had a severe disability, and 5(8.2%) had a moderate disability. In contrast, postoperatively, the majority, 35(57.4%) of patients, had mild disability, 24(39.3%) had no disability, and only 2(3.3%) had moderate disability (P value < .001). Moreover, there was a statistically significant association between the presence of co-morbidity and postoperative outcome (P value = .021).

Conclusion:

Discectomy is a gold stander procedure in the management of LDH. Patients showed excellent functional outcomes. The most common presenting symptoms were right leg pain or numbness. Patients postoperatively showed significant clinical improvement according to the mODI score.