Study Design: Prospective cohort study.

Objectives: To evaluate outcomes for back pain following primary single level spinal decompression for nerve root pain.

Subjects: All patients were managed in a single spinal unit with two spinal surgeons following the same management protocol. Any patient undergoing spinal fusion was excluded. Over a five-year period there were 217 patients, with a mean age of 39 years (15 to 78 years). The male to female ratio was 1:1. All had specific single level nerve root pain and definite nerve root compromise confirmed on MRI.

Outcome Measures: All patients were assessed preoperatively and followed at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months using a standard back pain questionnaire including visual analogue scores for leg and back pain, a pain diagram, Oswestry disability index (ODI), Zung depression index and somatisation scores.

Results: We report a statistically significant improvement in back pain post-operatively with 68.6% of patients improving their score (p < 0.001 sign test) with 19.5% reporting complete relief. This improvement was sustained over the follow-up period. Post-operative improvements in back pain correlated well with post surgical reduction in leg pain score, and ODI. Patients with increased back pain scores (> 5) at presentation, were more likely to report an improvement. In this group 80.5% reported a significant reduction in their back pain following surgery. No correlation could be identified between back pain scores and somatisation and Zung depression indices, age, gender or employment status.

Conclusions: These results are contrary to other reported series and suggest the prognosis for back pain following primary single level spinal decompression may be better than anticipated.