ABSTRACT
Background: postoperative lumbar discitis is a rare but depressing complication of if° lumbar disc surgery. The long-term prognosis of these patients needs to be highlighted
Aim of the work: is to evaluate the clinical conditions of such patients after a long period from surgery extending to two years
Patients and methods: seventeen cases of proved postoperative lumbar discitis were analyzed. All patients were followed for 2 years. Each patients was subjected to full history taking, clinical examination, radiological investigations, and laboratory testing
Results: there were 12 females [71%] and 5 males [29%], The most involved level was IA-L5 level [10 cases =58.8%], Postoperative pain relieve lasted for 4 days to 34 days with a mean of 11.8 days. Duration of discitis pain ranged from 2 weeks to 12 weeks with a mean of 6.5 weeks]. The Oswestry low back pain scale was used a quantitative method for determination of the severity of symptoms. Fifteen patients [88.2%] had minimal disability, 2 patients [11.8%] moderate disability at one-year follow up. After 2 years 13 patients [92.9%] had mild disability, one patient [7.1%] moderate disability and 3 patients lost in the follow up
Conclusion: although postoperative lumbar discitis is a rare complication, its impact on the patient and the surgeon is severe because the patient complaint is usually more severe than the original pain. On long-term follow up most patients can regain their preoperative quality of work