Clinical Research Director Norton Leatherman Spine Center Louisville, KY, US
Disclosure(s):
Leah Carreon, MD, MSc: No relevant disclosure to display
Introduction: Sexual health is vital for everybody's wellbeing but is often restricted due to pain in patients suffering from lumbar disc herniation. We sought to evaluate the self-reported sexual health of younger patients undergoing lumbar discectomies.
Methods: Patients aged 18 to 50 undergoing lumbar discectomy at our institution between 2010 and 2022 were retrieved from the Danish Spine Registry. The sexual health was evaluated by the Oswestry Low Back Disability Index (ODI) item 8; “My sex life is?” and considered as primary outcome. Secondary outcome was visual analogue scale (VAS) for both back and leg pain. Both outcomes were assessed pre-operatively and 1 year post-operative. Baseline characteristics included patient demographics, smoking and surgical details. These characteristics were used as independent variables in a logistic regression to explore their association with a restricted sex life following surgery.
Results: 1,700 patients were included in the study cohort. The average age was 38.4%, 46.3% were females and the average BMI 26.9. More than 1/3 reported they were active smokers at the time of surgery. At baseline, 54.7%% reported a restricted, nearly absent or absent sex life due to pain with mean VAS scores of 50.6 for back pain and 70.2 for leg pain. At 1 year following surgery 11.8% reported a restricted, nearly absent or absent sex life, a mean VAS score of 29.2 for back pain and 23.6 for leg pain (p < 0.001 for all comparisons). Smoking was significantly associated with an abnormal sex life with a relative risk of 1.67 (95% CI: 1.24 – 2.19), which were robust for the inclusion of other baseline covariates.
Conclusion : Younger patients experiencing restriction in their sex life due to pain from lumbar disc herniation can be assured that more than 88% reports a normal or nearly normal sex life 1 year following lumbar discectomy. However, smoking might increase the risk of prolonged restriction.