Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Recovery after surgery for lower back disk herniation in dogs
By Dhupa, S et al.·Published in Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association·1999·Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Functional outcome in dogs after surgical treatment of caudal lumbar intervertebral disk herniation.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs with back problems caused by herniated disks in the lower spine underwent surgery to relieve their symptoms. The study looked at 36 dogs with this condition and found that about 81% of them recovered well after surgery. Interestingly, the only major factor affecting recovery was whether the dog had complete loss of movement before the surgery. Overall, the results suggest that dogs with lower back disk herniations can have a good outcome after surgery, similar to those with upper back issues.
People also search for: dog back surgery recovery · herniated disk in dogs · dog back pain treatment
Abstract
Caudal lumbar disk herniations (i.e., third lumbar [L3] to seventh lumbar [L7] intervertebral spaces) represent approximately 15% of surgically treated thoracolumbar disk herniations in dogs. A retrospective case-control study was conducted to determine the postoperative outcome of this subset of dogs in the authors' neurosurgical practice. Medical records (1985 through 1996) were reviewed for dogs with caudal lumbar disk herniation confirmed at surgery. Thirty-six cases were identified. For each case, two dogs that underwent surgical treatment for upper motor neuron thoracolumbar disk herniation (tenth thoracic [T10] to L3 intervertebral spaces) were selected as controls. Probabilities of functional recovery for cases and controls were 81% and 85%, respectively (p value of 0.49). In dogs with caudal lumbar disk herniation, complete sensorimotor loss was the only significant predictor of functional recovery (p value of 0.005). Disk herniations that occur at the thoracolumbar junction and those that occur in the caudal lumbar region should not be considered to be different in terms of surgical treatment and postoperative outcome. The lower motor neuron signs that often accompany caudal lumbar disk herniation reflect the site of spinal cord injury and do not necessarily predict a poor prognosis.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10416778/