Does educating a patient about lumbar disc herniation affect the treatment compliance and outcome? A systematic review.

INTRODUCTION

There is a wide-ranging published literature around low back pain management. However, heterogeneity of selection criteria and outcomes limits the ability for an accurate line of evidence. One of the main causes of low back pain is lumbar disc herniation. There are some gaps of knowledge regarding the effectiveness of educating lumbar disc herniation patients on its treatment compliance and outcome.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the effectiveness of educating lumbar disc herniation patients on its treatment compliance and outcome.

METHODS

This systematic review searched 3 databases from January 2000 to March 2023. All full-text English studies (randomized clinical trials and observational studies) examining outcomes in lumbar disc herniation patients were eligible for inclusion.

RESULTS

Five studies with a total of 1046 lumbar disc herniation patients were included in this study. The mean age of participants ranged from 40 to 60 years old, and 36.63 %-58.00 % were female. Functional outcome was reported in all studies and symptomatic outcome comprised 3 domains, leg pain, back pain and general pain. Other variable outcomes included work status, quality of life and symptoms improvement satisfaction.

DISCUSSION: This study showed some heterogeneity in the types of outcomes used across the management of lumbar disc herniation patients, with particularly scarce information regarding the effect of patient education in treatment compliance. Therefore, it is important and necessary the development of future clinical studies to help standardize reporting across medical practice in the context of lumbar disc herniation pathology.