Clinical and Radiologic Analysis of Disc Heights Change in Conservatively Treated Lumbar Herniated Disc Patients

Objective: The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical and radiologic factors of disc height loss in spontaneous resolution of herniated lumbar disc patients.Methods: From January 2017 to December 2018, a total of 56 symptomatic herniated lumbar disc patients (36 men and 20 women) were investigated retrospectively in this study. Clinical findings including age, sex, pain, and smoking history were examined in each group (group A, patients with not-changed disc heights; group B, patients with decreased disc heights). Radiologically, the level, severity, laterality, modic change, and disc degeneration of lumbar disc herniation were investigated between groups. We compared demographic and radiologic findings between groups.Results: A total of 56 patients were enrolled (group A, 30 patients; group B, 26 patients). There were no significant statistical differences in age, sex, visual analog scale (VAS) scores, level of disc herniation, and laterality of disc herniation between groups. Group A had more protrusion cases (14/30 cases) and group B had more Sequestration (11/26 cases). About Modic change and disc degeneration classification, group B had more modic change cases and more disc degeneration cases than group B.Conclusion: In this study, there were no significant differences in demographic findings, level of disc herniation, the status of disc herniation, laterality of disc herniation, VAS of back pain between group A and group B.