Study design:

Case control study.

Objective:

Micro-lumbar discectomy or Interbody fusion procedure are work-horse surgical procedures in management of lumbar disc disease. Spine surgeon in their early years of practice gets confused in choosing ideal surgical plan when dealing with a complex scenario. A clinical score is needed to guide spine surgeons in choosing an optimal surgical plan.

Materials and methods:

Study was done with research grant approval from AO Spine. A predictive score was formulated as per hypothesis following a pilot study. Two fellowship trained spine surgeons-one using the score (Group A) and other not using score (Group B-control) treated 40 patients included in their respective group. All patients were analysed preoperatively, post-surgery at 12 months follow-up with Visual analog scale score for back pain, leg pain, Oswestry disability index score, SF-36 score. Change in parameters at 12 months follow-up were analysed statistically. P ≤ .05 was considered statistically significant. Success rate of individual surgeon who managed respective group of patients and Difficulty index of surgeon who managed without using score was evaluated at 12 months follow-up.

Results:

Success rate of Group A-surgeon was higher than Group B-surgeon .15% of Group B patients had poor surgical outcome at follow-up. Statistically significant improvement in Group A patients were seen in all 3 evaluated parameters when compared to Group B patients at 12 months of follow-up (P ≤ .05). Difficulty index of surgeon who didn’t use the score was 15%.

Conclusion:

The proposed predictive score comprising all risk factors, can be used by spine surgeons when they are confronted with difficult scenario in decision-making. Accuracy, reliability and validity of the score needs to be evaluated in a larger scale.

Level of evidence:

Ⅲ.