~ 14 ~ International Journal of Orthopaedics Sciences 2021; 7(2): 14-19 E-ISSN: 2395-1958 P-ISSN: 2706-6630 IJOS 2021; 7(2): 14-19 © 2021 IJOS www.orthopaper.com Received: 19-11-2020 Accepted: 02-02-2021 Dr. Ramavtar Saini Professor & Unit Head, Department of Orthopaedics, Geetanjali Medical College and Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India Dr. Anshu Sharma Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopaedics, Geetanjali Medical College and Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India Dr. Kshitij Agrawal 3 rd year Resident, Department of Orthopaedics, Geetanjali Medical College and Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India Dr. Utkarsh Patel 3 rd year Resident, Department of Orthopaedics, Geetanjali Medical College and Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India Dr. Abhishek Dholakia 3 rd year Resident, Department of Orthopaedics, Geetanjali Medical College and Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India Dr. Dharan Shah 3 rd year Resident, Department of Orthopaedics, Geetanjali Medical College and Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India Corresponding Author: Dr. Kshitij Agrawal 3 rd year Resident, Department of Orthopaedics, Geetanjali medical College and Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India Comparative evaluation of functional outcome of discectomy and posterior lumbar interbody fusion for treatment of prolapse intervertebral disc Dr. Ramavtar Saini, Dr. Anshu Sharma, Dr. Kshitij Agrawal, Dr. Utkarsh Patel, Dr. Abhishek Dholakia and Dr. Dharan Shah DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/ortho.2021.v7.i2a.2607 Abstract Background: Lumbar disc herniation is the most common cause of low back pain and significant disability with economic impact too. Management of disc herniation is challenging, often confusing when surgical treatment is considered, because of frequent failures after surgery in many patients to relieve symptoms. In the current study, we aimed to compare the functional outcomes of treating PIVD with discectomy alone and discectomy associated with posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF). Materials and Methods: This study is randomised control study was conducted over 36 patients diagnosed with PIVD and operated for Discectomy (18 patients) or PLIF (18 patients) in Orthopaedic department, Geetanjali Medical College, Udaipur, Rajasthan between January 2019 to June 2020 and randomly allotted in two groups.To evaluate Functional outcomes using Japanese orthopedic score (JOA) and kirkaldy-willis criteria in every follow up at 2 week, 6 week, 3 month and 6 month. Results: Calculating the functional outcome by both the criteria in all follow ups, we concluded that in early follow up that is of second post op week, discectomy shows satisfactory outcome then that of PLIF group. In 6 month last follow up, PLIF group show satisfactory outcome then that of Discectomy patients groups and p value was 0.0042 which was significant. Out of 36 patients, one patient had dura rupture intraoperatively which was repaired simultaneously and one patient had surgical site infection which resolved later on, both patients were in discectomy group. Conclusions: Although both discectomy alone and discectomy with PLIF were associated with favorable mid-term results in treating patients with PIVD, however, we recommend using discectomy with PLIF for lower radicular pain for better long term results.. Keywords: PIVD, PLIF, discectomy, Japanese orthopaedic score Introduction Lumbar disc herniation is one of the common cause of lower back pain [1, 2] . Management of disc herniation can be challenging. Non operative treatment gives good results in the majority of the cases. Operative treatments have better results mostly in short term pain relief and can provide relief if neural decompression is done. Early surgery does appear to affect the rate of Neurological recovery, although objective improvement in motor and sensory deficits does not appear to correlate with symptomatic relief and overall success rate [3] . With this evidence, it has been recognized that discectomy can give excellent early results in majority of patients with symptomatic relief with a satisfactory rate of over 95% [4, 5] . However, the long-term results of discectomy would become less concrete, with satisfactory rates from 40% to 80% [6] . Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (PLIF) is the used to describe the technique of surgical fusion of two (or more) lumbar spine bones together, along the sides of the bone, which uses placement of cage, spacer or structural graft in between the vertebral bodies, which is done after discectomy and bony end plates preparation and ultimately it fuses together in period of time. The credit for initially developing the techniques of the PLIF surgery, as it is performed today, goes to Cloward [7] , who emphasized the importance of wide exposure of the spinal canal to minimize nerve root injuries, the use of structural graft to prevent Intervertebral collapse and the complete removal of nuclear material from the disc space and replacement with bone to