Lumbar Micro-Discectomy Complications

If you have lumbar disc disease and your symptoms persist for more than eight weeks, you may be advised to undergo a micro-discectomy. However, the operation does have its complications.

Complications of micro-discectomy

The operation of lumbar micro-discectomy has well recognised complications including:

• Superficial wound infections
• Dural tear (which can either by repaired or allowed to heal spontaneously)
• Root damage, which is reported to occur in 1% of cases
• Cauda equina damage, which is reported to occur in 1 in 1,000 cases
• A recurrence of problems, which happens in around 5% of cases
• Exploration at the wrong level

Most studies will show a good outcome for up to 90% of patients with a recognised 70% to 80% achieving resolution of their sciatic but with poorer results for back pain. Careful patient selection is crucial to outcome with poor results being secondary to long pre-operative duration of symptoms, recurrence, scar formation, development of instability, wrong diagnosis or poor patient selection.

Other, often later complications are:

1. Failed back syndrome

This is persistent or recurrent back or leg pain following surgery for lumbar disc degeneration. It includes errors of clinical and surgical management as well as pain due to normal recovery from surgery.

2. Failed back surgery syndrome

This is a term which is used to describe patients who suffer an unsatisfactory result from lumbar spine surgery, often complaining of leg/back pain, resulting in reduced capacity for employment and activities of daily living. The implication of the definition is that surgery itself was inadequate and this is thought to arise from the following factors:

• Insufficient disc decompression at the time of surgery
• Insufficient bony decompression at the time of surgery
• Inter-segmental instability (bony, ligamentous and muscular)

3. Post discectomy syndrome

This is where clinical management and surgery are satisfactory but there are other factors which lead on to a failed back syndrome and these can be considered as: psychological factors which may be pre and post-operative; natural sequelae of disc degeneration or a neural arch of facet joints; epidural scarring and local arachnoiditis.

Has your surgery gone wrong?

If your micro-discectomy has not produced positive results, is surgical error to blame? A medical negligence solicitor will be able to advise you of this, suggesting whether or not you have been the innocent victim of medical negligence.

To talk to a specialist clinical negligence lawyer, please get in touch with us today.

Please call us free on 0800 234 3300, from a mobile click to call 01275 334030 or complete our Free Online Enquiry for a no cost, no obligation opinion.

Share Article With: