The quality of life of patients operated on for herniated intervertebral discs of the lower cervical spine, depending on the duration of preoperative conservative therapy

INTRODUCTION. Minimally invasive methods of treatment of herniated intervertebral discs of the cervical spine are described, the gold standard in the case of symptomatic herniated disc of the cervical spine has become anterior decompression and spinal fusion of the cervical spine, which is one of the most frequently performed procedures in the cervical spine. Longlasting preoperative symptoms in patients with herniated disc subsequently lead to worse surgical results in terms of quality of life.
AIM. To study the dynamics of quality of life in patients operated on for herniated intervertebral discs of the lower cervical spine, taking into account the duration of preoperative conservative therapy, according to the questionnaire “Index of vital signs in neck pain”.
MATERIALS AND METHODS. 38 patients with diagnosed single-level herniated intervertebral disc of the lower cervical spine without concomitant other compression factors of the spinal root or spinal cord in the lower cervical spine (C5-C6 or C6-C7), operated between 2019 and 2022, were under observation. The full information about the presence of a herniated intervertebral disc, its shape, size, condition of the spinal cord and spinal cord was obtained only from MR tomography. The quality of life of patients was assessed using The Neck Disability Index (NDI) questionnaire. The questionnaire includes 10 sections: intensity of neck pain, self-care (washing, dressing, etc.), lifting objects, reading, headache, concentration, performance, driving, sleep, rest and leisure, before surgery, 5 days after surgery and a year after surgery.
RESULTS. The indicators for assessing the quality of life according to the questionnaire NDI indicate that surgical treatment after confirmation of the presence of a herniated intervertebral disc of the cervical spine, which led to the development of pain syndrome and cervical myelopathy, statistically significantly led to an improvement in the quality of life of patients.
CONCLUSION. In patients with single-level herniated intervertebral disc of the lower cervical spine, timely surgical treatment statistically significantly led to an improvement in the quality of life of patients.

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