Sixty-seven of seventy-three patients who had had multiple operations on
the back with an initial diagnosis of lumbar-disc disease were reevaluated
as to relief of pain two and four years after the most recent operation.
More than 80 per cent of the patients had gained enough relief to deem the
procedure worth while. A diagnosis of fibrosis, preoperatively or
intraoperatively, portended a poor result, while the opposite was true with
diagnoses of mechanical compression (disc fragment or stenosis) and
instability (pseudarthrosis after fusion or spondylolisthesis). The
presence of a pain-free interval lasting one year from the date of the
previous operation correlated highly with the presence of a surgically
remediable lesion.