• Feng-Chen Kao, Yao-Chun Hsu, Chang-Bi Wang, Yuan-Kun Tu, and Pao-Hsin Liu.
• Department of Orthopedics, E-Da Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
• BMJ Open. 2018 Jul 17; 8 (7): e021028.

Background/ObjectiveDegenerative diseases of the lumbar spine were managed with discectomy or laminectomy. This study aimed to compare these two surgical treatments in the postoperative revision rates.DesignA population-based cohort study from analysis of a healthcare database.SettingData were gathered from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD).ParticipantsWe enrolled 16 048 patients (4450 women and 11 598 men) with a mean age of 40.34 years who underwent lumbar discectomy or laminectomy for the first time between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 2007. All patients were followed up for 5 years or until death.ResultsRevision rate within 3 months of the index surgery was significantly higher in patients who underwent discectomy (2.75%) than in those who underwent laminectomy (1.18%; p<0.0001). This difference persisted over the first year following the index surgery (3.38% vs 2.57%). One year afterwards, the revision rates were similar between the discectomy (9.75%) and laminectomy (9.69%) groups. The final spinal fusion surgery rates were also similar between the groups (11.25% vs 12.08%).ConclusionThe revision rate after lumbar discectomy was higher than that after laminectomy within 1 year of the index surgery. However, differences were not identified between patient groups for the two procedures with respect to long-term revision rates and the proportion of patients who required final spinal fusion surgery.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2018. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.

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