Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
The problem is that the herniation has weakened the wall and it will absolutely happen again.
The microdiscectomy is presumably to allow the bulge to happen a little bit without the nerves being pinched/inflamed. That should theoretically allow it to bother him less frequently, but he'll need to be careful still because if he tries to play on it and tweaks it wrong, it's gonna go completely haywire and no discectomy is going to solve that. Worse for him, as he ages, he may need it fused; way down in the lumbar for a dude that tall is going to take quite a bit of strain. If he's already having bulging disc issues at 19 years old, it's not going to get better for him.
Just as was the case when Poe went down with his herniated disc and needed surgery, I'm going to have to assume that this will be a long-term, lingering issue for a 6'10'' dude until proven otherwise.
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I was never saying this wouldn't be a chronic issue. People with back injuries are more likely to suffer chronic back injuries. It's axiomatic.
There are a lot of complications here and things we don't know. Did he tear the annulus? How broad is his spinal canal? Does he have osteophytes that are irritating the nerve?
The discectomy is a quick fix. What matters is the diameter of his spinal canal. Shaving the disc back will get him space now, but no more than the normal immune process of resorption. That's why it works quickly but offers no long-term benefit. There is no Level I evidence to suggest that surgery is a superior route over many years. It is superior at several months and two years, but not at ten.
As far as a future fusion, we'll see. You actually need less rotation in your lumbar spine than your thoracic spine, and lumbar re-herniations recur at about a 5% rate for the general population, regardless of whether they chose surgical or medical management.