Research
Medical records of 363 patients who had a diagnosis of lumbar disc disease and were managed by a posterior approach lumbar discectomy over a 7 year period were reviewed: 33 patients had a preoperative diagnosis of diabetes, an incidence in this patient population of 9.1%. The results for these 33 patients who had a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus were compared with those of 33 age and sex matched nondiabetic (control) patients who had a similar operative approach. Twenty-five of the diabetic and 28 of the control patients were available for long term follow up. The results were positive (good to excellent) for 24 of the 28 (86%) control patients and 15 of the 25 (60%) diabetic patients. Seven of the 25 (28%) diabetic patients had reoperation for recurrent disc
1 Neurosurgical Registrar and 2 Consultant Neurosurgeon, The Canberra Hospital, Woden ACT, Australia
Summary
Medical records of 363 patients who had a diagnosis of lumbar disc disease and were managed by a posterior approach lumbar discectomy over a 7 year period were reviewed: 33 patients had a preoperative diagnosis of diabetes, an incidence in this patient population of 9.1%. The results for these 33 patients who had a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus were compared with those of 33 age and sex matched nondiabetic (control) patients who had a similar operative approach. Twenty-five of the diabetic and 28 of the control patients were available for long term follow up. The results were positive (good to excellent) for 24 of the 28 (86%) control patients and 15 of the 25 (60%) diabetic patients. Seven of the 25 (28%) diabetic patients had reoperation for recurrent disc herniation at the same level following the initial procedure compared with one of the 28 (3.5%) control patients.
© 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd
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Keywords
discectomy, diabetes, incidence, outcome
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