Minimally invasive lumbar decompression and fusion have similar recovery times
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Researchers found no differences in postoperative recovery or discontinuation of narcotics between patients who had one-level minimally invasive lumbar decompression and those who had a one-level minimally invasive lumbar fusion.
From April 2017 to August 2018, Jung Kee Mok, BS, and researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery compared return-to-work and return-to-driving times for patients undergoing either a lumbar decompression or fusion procedure. Researchers also analyzed patients for the number of days it took to discontinue narcotic medication. No differences in demographic variables were reported.
According to the abstract, it took the patients who underwent minimally invasive lumbar decompression 14 days to return to driving, 16.5 days to return to work and 7 days to discontinue narcotic use. For the patients who underwent minimally invasive lumbar fusion, it took 16 days to return to driving, 14 days to return to work and 11.5 days to discontinue narcotic use.
“Furthermore, for all three measures, there were no statistically significant differences in the median number of days to return to the activity, distributions of values or the percentages of patients returning to the activity/discontinuing narcotic medication at various timepoints,” the researchers wrote in the abstract. “Our study is the first to show that patients undergoing single-level minimally invasive lumbar decompression or fusion procedures can expect to return to work and driving between 2 and 3 weeks after surgery and discontinue narcotic medications between 1 and 2 weeks after surgery,” they concluded.
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Mok JK, et al. Poster 316. Presented at: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting; March 24-28, 2020 (meeting canceled).
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