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Lee, Ahn, Hong, and Lee: The Changes of Disc Height and Degeneration in Patients with Lumbar Disc Herniation
Original Article

Journal of Korean Spine Surg 2005;12(1):58-62.

Published online: 21 February 2005

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4184/jkss.2005.12.1.58

The Changes of Disc Height and Degeneration in Patients with Lumbar Disc Herniation

June-Kyu Lee, M.D., Jae Sung Ahn, M.D., Chang-Hwa Hong, M.D.#, Jung Bum Lee, M.D.

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, School of Medicine, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Korea

#Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Chungju St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Chungju, Korea

Address reprint requests to Jae-Sung Ahn, M.D. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, School of Medicine, Chungnam National University #640 Daesa-Dong, Jung-Gu, Daejeon, Korea Tel: 82-42-220-7353, Fax: 82-42-252-7098, E-mail: jsahn@cnu.ac.kr

Copyright © 2005 Korean Society of Spine Surgery

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Study Design

The changes of the disc height in patients diagnosed with lumbar disc herniation who underwent a discectomy were subjected to a retrospective study.

Objective

The goal of this study was to find the relationship between the disc height and degenerative disc changes in patients diagnosed with lumbar disc herniation who underwent a discectomy.

Summary of Literature Review

Disc height changes according to age, degenerative change and the amount of removed disc.

Materials and Methods

The patients in this study were those diagnosed with HNP who undergone a discectomy in our hospital. The fifty seven observed patients had a discectomy in our hospital between March, 2001 and March, 2003. Patients who had posterior fusion during surgery were excluded. There were 35 males and 22 females, with an average age of 35.9 yrs old (17- 55) and a mean followup period of 2.7 yrs. The degrees of HNP and degenerative disc were examined with MRI and measured through the T2 MRI, respectively, before the operation. The disc heights were measured before and after surgery, and the anterior, posterior and middle disc heights were measured with a simple lumbar lateral X - ray. There were 6, 20, 25 and 6 cases of degeneration grades II, III, IV and V, respectively. There were also 27, 25 and 5 cases of protruded, extruded and sequestrated discs, respectively.

Results

When patients with a lumbar disc herniation underwent a discectomy, the changes of disc height in people of those with a postoperative degenerative disc change were notable, but there was no difference in disc height change with regard to the degree of HNP.

Conclusion

In lumbar disc herniation patients after a discectomy, the changes of disc height decrease significantly in severe degenerative discs in the short term; therefore, further long term periods of study will be required.

Keywords: HNP, Disc height, Disc degeneration

REFERENCES

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Table 1.
The change of disc height after discectomy(%).
postop 6 mon 1 yr 2 yr 3 yr
anterior +7.5 -4.5 -10.4 -14.6 -16.2
middle +5.6 -5.0 0-9.3 -10.2 -14.5
posterior +7.2 -4.8 -11.2 -12.1 -15.0
Table 2.
The relationship between disc degeneration and change of mean disc height after discectomy (mean disc height = anterior+middle+posterior disc height/3)(%).
postop 6 mon 1 yr 2 yr 3 yr
GII +6.2 -4.0 0-7.7 0-5.5 0-5.0
GIII +5.5 -7.5 0-9.5 -10.3 -14.7
GIV +7.0 -6.4 -10.6 -15.0 -17.5
GV +7.1 -8.5 -13.7 -19.0 -24.3
Table 3.
The relationship between herniated disc shape and change of mean disc height mean disc height(%)
postop 6 mon 1 yr 2 yr 3 yr
Protrusion +6.5 -4.5 -10.3 -14.3 -14.5
Extrusion +7.6 -5.8 -11.7 -13.6 -15.5
Sequestration +7.4 -6.6 0-9.6 -14.6 -14.9
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