Loading...
Many patients with symptomatic herniated lumbar disks improve with time and don't require surgery. But if pain persists beyond a certain point, does the patient lose a chance to benefit from surgery? To address this question, researchers analyzed data from the previously published SPORT trial (JW Gen Med Nov 28 2006), which included both randomized (surgery vs. nonoperative care, with crossovers permitted) and observational cohorts.
At enrollment, 78% of nearly 1200 patients had symptoms for ≤6 months; the remaining 22% had symptoms for >6 months. In as-treated analyses within both the surgery and nonsurgery groups, the magnitude of clinical improvement during 4 years of follow-up was greater in patients with shorter-duration symptoms than i…