Lumbar Disc Herniation In Teenage Children And Adolescents: Diagnosis And Treatment

Objective: To investigate the pathogenesis and clinical feature of lumbar disc herniation in teenage children and adolescents, in order to guide treatment in clinic.Methods: Threre are totally 40 lumbar disc herniation patients who under 21 years old in our hospital within 1993 and 2001. A total of 7 cases were received conservative treatment , and the other patients were received operative treatment. The surgical procedure included interlaminar partial laminotomy on one side, hemilaminar laminotomy and interlaminar partial laminotomy on both sides. The amount of the patients under interlaminar partial laminotomy are 16 cases, and hemilaminar laminotomy are 14 cases , interlaminar partial laminotomy on both sides are 3cases. There were totally 40 patients under 3 to 10 years follow-up, average 4.2 years. Follow-up evalution was primarily via clinical visits. The Japanese Orthopaedic Association's evaluation system for lower back pain syndrome(JOA score) was used to evaluate the outcome.Results There are significant defferent features between adults and adolescents . Symptoms are slight and signs are more severe. The outcomes of which the patients received operative treatment are superior to that of conservative treatment. There are no significant variance among the operative groups.Conclusion: Herniated intervertebral discs are rare in children and adolescents. Physical signs and imaging were more reliable than symptom.