Study Design: A nested case-control study

Objectives: Lumbar herniated disc recurrence is common and might be related to the strength of paravertebral muscles. To explore if paravertebral muscle properties (volume and degeneration) are associated with recurrent herniated disc following full-endoscopic discectomy.

Methods: This is a case-control study nested in the Bumrungrad Spine Cohort. In this study, data of 545 international patients who underwent full endoscopic discectomy between 2011 and 2015 were reviewed. Patients were considered a case if he/she experience a recurrent herniated disc. Age- and gender-matched controls were randomly selected from the non-case group. Physiologic measures were used to quantify the paravertebral muscle volume with the lumbar indentation value (LIV) technique and degeneration with the Goutallier classification.

The LIV and Goutallier classification measurements were compared between the clinical and control groups using the kappa statistic and Fisher’s exact test.

Results: Of 545 patients, 60 with recurrent herniated disc and 60 age- and gender-matched controls were examined. The overall mean age of the patients was 47.38 years, and 30.83% of patients were female. The mean LIV was 14.59, with no significant difference between the case and control groups (14.93 vs. 14.25 mm; p=0.5021). The Goutallier classification showed a similar distribution between groups (p=0.25).

Conclusions: Based on our data, paravertebral muscle volume and degeneration were not associated with herniated disc recurrence after full-endoscopic discectomy.