Previous studies have stated that presence of concomitant back pain has a negative effect on the outcome of lumbar decompression/microdiscectomy but none have actually defined what level of back pain should be considered as significant. This is a study of consecutive patients who underwent a primary single level lumbar micro decompression /microdiscectomy performed by thirty nine surgeons at a single tertiary spinal centre between August 2011 and December 2014. The aim was to determine the differential effect of the intensity of back pain and leg pain as a predictor of outcome. Data was prospectively collected using SpineTango COMI questionnaires pre-operatively and at 3 months postoperatively. 995 patients who had a complete dataset were included in the analysis. Multivariate regression analysis and ROC curves were used to evaluate factors associated with poor outcome. At 3 months follow up 72.16% of patients were satisfied with the outcome of surgery. The VAS for low back pain was a significant predictor of poor outcome. Of patients with a VAS of 6 or more 34% had a poor outcome following surgery while of patients with a VAS of less than 6, 17% had a poor outcome at three months.Back ground:
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