A study published online in the journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research examines rates for revision diskectomy. The researchers reviewed data on 7,520 primary lumbar diskectomy patients from two national insurance databases in the United States. 

At 7-year follow-up, they found that revision rates ranged from 5.6 percent to 6.2 percent, with a total of 452 patients having undergone revision diskectomy. The researchers noted survivorship was lower for patients younger than 65 years, even when nondiskectomy lumbar surgeries were included. They found no difference in revision diskectomy rates or additional nondiskectomy lumbar surgery rates across geographic regions. Learn more...