The results of "lumbar disc surgery" following unsuccessful chemonucleolysis.

A group of 100 patients submitted to microsurgical treatment for herniated lumbar disc following unsuccessful chemonucleolysis with chymopapain were retrospectively compared to a statistically comparable group of patients primarily submitted to microsurgery. This comparison demonstrated that previous unsuccessful chemonucleolysis has no influence on either the short-term or the long-term results of subsequent microsurgery.