Enhancing the natural history awareness of lumbar disc displacement and facilitating rehabilitation following surgery

We scrutinized the systematic review article by Huysmanset al. [ [1] Huysmans E Goudman L Van Belleghem G De Jaeger M Moens M Nijs J et al. Return to work following surgery for lumbar radiculopathy: a systematic review. Spine J. 2018; 18: 1694-1714 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (24) Google Scholar ] with interest. Indeed, Huysmans et al. addressed an important issue for the spinal community with their PROSPERO-registered review protocol. They unraveled the state-of-art scenarios of returning to work and sick leave duration following surgery for lumbar radiculopathy. Notably, lumbar radiculopathy, or lumbar disc displacement (MeSH terms) with sciatica and/or leg pain, is among the most common spinal disorders, greatly affecting patients’ welfare [ [2] Deyo RA Mirza SK Clinical practice. Herniated lumbar intervertebral disk. N Engl J Med. 2016; 374: 1763-1772 Crossref PubMed Scopus (149) Google Scholar ]. Thus, we would like to make some comments on the issue.