Usefulness of corset adoption after single-level lumbar discectomy: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

<jats:sec><jats:title>OBJECTIVE</jats:title><jats:p>In this paper, the authors sought to verify whether corset adoption could improve the short-term and midterm outcome scores of patients after single-level lumbar discectomy.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>METHODS</jats:title><jats:p>A monocentric, randomized controlled trial of 54 consecutive patients who underwent single-level lumbar discectomy at the authors’ institution was performed from September 2014 to August 2015. Patients were randomly assigned to use or not use a lumbar corset in the upright position. Patients with previous interventions for disc herniation or with concomitant canal or foraminal stenosis were excluded. The visual analog scale, Oswestry Disability Index, and Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire were used to compare groups at the 1- and 6-month follow-up time points.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>RESULTS</jats:title><jats:p>No significant differences between the 2 groups were reported at either time point for any given outcome irrespective of the scale used.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>CONCLUSIONS</jats:title><jats:p>Corset adoption does not improve the short-term and midterm outcomes of patients after single-level lumbar discectomy.</jats:p></jats:sec>

The efficacy of postoperative bracing after spine surgery for lumbar degenerative diseases: a systematic review

“…Soliman et al [2] reported that the improvement in ODI at three months after surgery was significantly greater in the control group (p = 0.010), compared to the bracing treatment group. By contrast, a significant difference in ODI between the two groups was not reported at the follow-up in the studies by Yao et al and Zoia et al [3,4].…”

“…Three studies [2][3][4] compared disability by assigning an Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) score to patients who received postoperative bracing and those who did not after surgery for lumbar degenerative disease. Of these, Soliman et al [2] and Yao et al [3] assessed the utility of bracing following posterior instrumented fusion and open TLIF, respectively, while Zoia et al [4] evaluated the efficacy of bracing treatment after single-level microdiscectomy.…”

“…Of the 391 citations screened, four randomized controlled trials met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review [1][2][3][4] (Fig. 1).…”

“…On the contrary, in the study of Yee et al [1] patients have worn a lumbar corset of canvas material with two posterior metallic supports for full time for 8 weeks after posterolateral posterior fusion. Finally, Zoia et al [4] reported the use of a semirigid lumbar corset (i.e. with posterior flexible stays and abdominal straps) for 4 weeks during upright position.…”

“…The use of bracing following various types of surgery for lumbar degenerative disease is common, and it extends to fusion procedures, as well as microdiscectomy and laminectomy [1][2][3][4]. Postoperative bracing was, respectively, prescribed for 49% and 38% of the patients in two surveybased studies in North America and Europe following lumbar procedures [5,6].…”