Study identifies athletic performance outcomes post lumbar discectomy

Anakwenze OA. Spine. 35(7):825-828. April 2010.

Study results showed that 75% of athletes who underwent lumbar discectomy returned to play in the National Basketball Association compared with 88% of control subjects who did not have surgery.

The study, performed by Okechukwu A. Anakwenze, MD, and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, also revealed that the returning players’ overall athletic performance was slightly improved or no worse than that of the control athletes.

The investigators noted that lumbar discectomy relieves symptoms and improves function for most patients, as indicated by validated outcome measures like the Oswestry Disability Index, the Visual Analog Scale and the Short Form-36.

“Among professional athletes, however, the goal of lumbar HNP (herniated disc pulposus) treated by discectomy is not only to improve functional status but also, ultimately, to return the player to preinjury athletic performance levels,” they wrote in their abstract.

For their retrospective, case control study, Anakwenze and colleagues compared the athletic performance profiles of a cohort of National Basketball Association (NBA) players post lumbar discectomy with a control group of matched NBA players who did not undergo surgery.

The investigators analyzed game summaries, weekly injury reports, player profiles and press releases to identify 24 athletes who underwent lumbar discectomy for symptomatic lumbar HNP between 1991 and 2007, according to the abstract. They included a control group of 48 players without a history of lumbar HNP who were matched for age, position, experience and body mass index.

Results showed that 18 of the 24 lumbar discectomy patients (75%) returned to play in the NBA vs. 42 of 48 players in the control group (88%). At 1-year postoperatively, there was a statistically significant increase in blocked shots per 40 minutes for the lumbar discectomy group (0.18) vs. the control group (-0.33). In addition, the investigators found a smaller decrease in the number of rebounds per 40 minutes in the surgery group (-0.25) compared to the control group (-1.42).

“No other performance variable was found to be significantly different between the study and control group,” the investigators wrote.

It is useful to know what to expect after discectomy in NBA players. This study provides the ability to quote a number, 75%, for the likelihood of return to play. This study allows for better counseling of patients and creating reasonable expectations.

– Scott D. Boden, MD
Orthopedics Today Editorial Board Member