Objectives:

To evaluate how well the degree of pain relief after discoblock predicts the disability outcome of subsequent fusion or total disc replacement (TDR) surgery, based on short-term Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores.

Methods:

We retrospectively analyzed a set of patients who had undergone discoblock and subsequent fusion or TDR surgery of the same lumbar intervertebral disc due to suspected discogenic chronic LBP between 2011 and 2018. We calculated the degree of pain relief following discoblock (ΔNRS) and the changes in both absolute and percentual ODI scores (ΔODI and ΔODI%, respectively) following fusion or TDR surgery. We analyzed the statistical significance of ΔNRS and ΔODI and the correlation (Spearman’s rho) between ΔNRS and ΔODI%. The fusion and TDR group were analyzed both in combination and separately.

Results:

Fifteen patients were eligible for the current study (fusion n=9, TDR n=6). ΔNRS was statistically significant in all groups, and ΔODI was statistically significant in the combined group and in the fusion group alone. The parameters of both decreased. We found a Spearman’s rho of 0.57 (p=0.026) between ΔNRS and ΔODI% for the combined group. The individual Spearman’s rho values were 0.85 (p=0.004) for the fusion group and 0.62 (p=0.191) for the TDR group.

Conclusions:

We suggest that discoblock is a useful predictive criterion for disability outcome prior to surgery for discogenic LBP, especially when stabilizing spine surgery is under consideration.

Ethical committee number:

174/2019 (Oulu University Hospital Ethics Committee).