Study: Newer Surgery No Better for Sciatica

A newer type of surgery for the back problem sciatica doesn’t speed recovery, a study has found. Sciatica is a painful condition. It is caused by pressure on the sciatic nerve. Sometimes the source of pressure is a bulging disk in the spine. The older procedure to repair the disc is called microdiskectomy. The newer one, tubular diskectomy, uses a smaller incision. Researchers divided 328 people with sciatica into two groups. Half had the older surgery, and half had the newer one. People who had the older procedure actually recovered a bit faster and with less pain. The study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. HealthDay News wrote about it July 8.