The study included 180 patients admitted to the Department of Neurosurgery diagnosed with disc herniation, 36.7% of them were males and 63.3% were females. The mean age of the patients was 47.3 years, deviating by 11.1 years, (table1).
Most of the patients had a history of hypertension, 22.7%, 12.3% of the patients had a history of diabetes, and 12.8% had other history, as shown in (table 2).
Most of the patients had lower back pain 90.9%, while 2.7% were suffering mainly from foot drop, and 2.2% had neck pain, as shown in (Table 3).
Most patients had lower back pain, 36.1%, and diffuse radicular pain, 26.7%. While 17.9% had nervous claudication, and 14.9% had numbness and numbness, as shown in (table 4).
5% of patients had meningeal injury, 3.9% had postoperative pain, 1.1% had sphincter leaks, and 1.7% had neurological injury, as shown in (Table 5).
When studying the relationship between gender and pathological history, the results showed a statistically significant relationship between them, where 33.3% of female patients had a history of arterial hypertension more than 15.2% of males (P < 0.05), But the results did not show a statistically significant relationship between each of the antecedents of diabetes, or antecedents of the heart, Regarding the symptoms experienced by nucleus pulpal herniation patients, the results showed a statistically significant relationship between gender and symptoms, most of the females 40.4% had more neurological claudication than the males of 28.8% (P < 0.05). However, the results did not show any difference between the gender regarding the appearance of the remaining symptoms. When studying the relationship between gender and neurological signs, the results showed a statistically significant relationship between sex and Lasik score, where the Lasik score was negative for most males, 59.1% compared to 48.2% of females (P < 0.05) as shown as (table 6).
When studying the relationship between the characteristics of low back pain and the study variables, the results showed a statistically significant relationship between the characteristics of pain and gender. Most of the males had 66.3% chronic or recurrent pain compared to 33.7% who had acute pain (P < 0.05) When studying the relationship between pain characteristics and symptoms, the results showed a statistically significant relationship between them. Where 50% of patients with claudication had chronic pain versus 24.5% had acute pain (P < 0.05), All patients with foot drop 7.3% had chronic lower back pain (P < 0.05). (Table 7).
Tables
Table (1): The relative distribution of the characteristics of the study sample according to age and gender
Gender
|
N (%)
|
Male
|
66 (36.75)
|
Female
|
114 (63.3)
|
Age
|
Max
|
Min
|
Mean (SD)
|
70
|
14
|
47.3(11.1)
|
Table (2): The relative distribution of the characteristics of the study sample according to Medical history
Medical history
|
N (%)
|
Hypertension
|
48 (22.7)
|
Diabetes
|
26 (12.3)
|
Cardiac antecedents
|
6 (2.8)
|
Other antecedents
|
27 (12.8)
|
No antecedents
|
104 (49.3)
|
Table (3): The relative distribution of the characteristics of the study sample according to main complaint
main complaint
|
N (%)
|
Lower back pain
|
169 (90.9)
|
Neck pain
|
4 (2.2)
|
Foot drop
|
5 (2.7)
|
Scoliosis
|
1 (0.5)
|
Urinary symptoms
|
2 (1.1)
|
Table (4): The relative distribution of the characteristics of the study sample according to Symptoms
Symptom
|
N (%)
|
Low back pain with radicular spread
|
131 (36.1)
|
nervous claudication
|
65 (17.9)
|
muscle weakness
|
54 (14.9)
|
urogenital symptoms
|
1 (0.3)
|
numbness and ants
|
2 (0.6)
|
Table (5): The relative distribution of the characteristics of the study sample according to Complications
Complications
|
N (%)
|
There is no
|
159 (88.3)
|
Meningeal injury
|
9 (5)
|
sphincter leaks
|
2 (1.1)
|
pain persistence
|
7 (3.9)
|
nerve injury
|
3 (1.7)
|
Table (6): the relationship between gender and pathological history
the relationship between gender and pathological history
|
male
|
Female
|
p-value
|
N (%)
|
N (%)
|
Medical history
|
Hypertension
|
10 (15.2)
|
38 (33.3)
|
0.008
|
Symptom
|
nervous claudication
|
19 (28.8)
|
46 (40.4)
|
0.001
|
Sings (Lasik)
|
positive one side
|
25 (37.9)
|
51 (48.2)
|
0.002
|
positive one side
|
2 (3)
|
8 (7%)
|
Negative
|
39 (59.1)
|
55 (48.2)
|
Table (7): The relationship between low back pain characteristics and study variables
relationship between low back pain characteristics and study variables
|
Acute lower back pain
|
Chronic lower back pain
|
p-value
|
N (%)
|
N (%)
|
gender
|
Male
|
33 (33.7)
|
65 (66.3)
|
0.008
|
Female
|
33 (40.2)
|
49 (59.8)
|
0.001
|
Symptom
|
nervous claudication
|
24 (24.5)
|
41 (50)
|
0.000
|
foot drop
|
0 (0.0)
|
6 (7.3)
|
0.006
|