The effectiveness of exercise program after lumbar discectomy surgery

A lumbar herniation disc appears as a major cause of lumbar pain and sciatica. The purpose of the present systematic review is to examine the effectiveness of such exercise programs on pain, disability, quality of life, strength and the assessed time required to return to work/normal activities after undergoing lumbar discectomy surgery. PubMed, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar were used for the selection of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The PEDro scale was chosen to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. Seven RCTS met the inclusion criteria. According to the evaluation of the PEDro scale, one was considered as « high quality», five as « moderate quality» and one as « low quality». The mean score of the studies was 5.14. The results showed that after such exercise there was an improvement in pain, disability, quality of life, muscle strength and in time required to return to work. The exercise programs have a positive impact on the reduction of pain, disability, time required to return to work/normal activities as well as an increase in quality of life and muscle strength in patients with lumbar discectomy surgery.