Abstract

Background: Return to work following lumbar micro discectomy has a great influence on the financial burden experienced by society because of the lumbar spine pathology. Likewise, it has been proposed as a predictor of the success of lumbar microdiscectomy.

Objective: We analyse the epidemiological characteristics of the patients who had undergone a microdiscectomy and several factors involved on their return to work: the economic factor studied as the patient’s healthcare card code, the job type, and the surgeon’s experience.

Methods: A prospective study of 30 occupationally active patients who had undergone lumbar microdiscectomies during the second semester of 2016.

Results: The 30% of the patients returned to their previous jobs within 3 months, the 46.7% within 6 months and the 67% within a year after surgery. Only the 6.7% of the high physical load workers and the 9.1% of the patients who presented preoperative claudication returned before 3 months. The 88.9% of the ones who did not return before 3 months have had symptoms for more than one year. Patients who had been operated on by surgeons with less than 10 years of experience have had 4.3 times greater risk of non-return to work one year after the surgery. There was no significant correlation between the patient’s healthcare card code (as an economic indicator) and the return to work.

Conclusion: There is less reincorporation to work among patients with high physical load jobs, preoperative claudication, long duration of preoperative symptoms and patients who had been operated on by surgeons with less than 10 years of experience.