Background
Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is a common disease. Its main symptoms are low back pain (LBP) as well as sciatica, which can lead to disability. This study aims to assess the outcome of intradiscal ozone injection in pain and disability management from lumbar disc herniation.
Subjects and Methods
This was a prospective, single-arm, non-randomized clinical trial, conducted at the orthopedic surgery department at Al-Hussein University Hospital and Syed Jalal University Hospital. The study was conducted on patients receiving ozone chemonucleolysis treatment in herniated lumbar discs. The follow-up duration was 6 months. The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) questionnaire and Visual analogue scales were used to assess pain impairment and physical performance as the main outcome (VAS).
IBM SPSS 25 Windows software was used to conduct the statistical analysis.
Results
The number of included patients was 30, with 12 females and 18 males. The mean age was 40.23±5.67. The majority of included patients had neither hypertension nor diabetes (N=28). Regarding the ODI, the analysis revealed a significant mean decrease from the baseline of 23.47 and a standard error of 2.37. As for the VAS, there was also a significant mean decrease of 3.5 and a standard error of 0.29 (p<0.001).
Conclusions
The study showed significant ODI and VAS score reductions. Therefore, intradiscal ozone injection showed significant improvements in pain disability and physical performance in LDH.