NCT05022251: DISC-PAIN

Identifying Pain Generators and Potentiators of Residual Complaints Following Lumbar Discectomy

Terminated Last updated 20 December 2023

What this trial tests

trial testing Lumbar discectomy in Lumbar Radiculopathy in 1 participant. Terminated before completion.

Timeline

1 October 2021

Primary endpoint
31 October 2023

31 October 2023

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	University Ghent
Status	Terminated
Study type	OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment	1
Start date	1 October 2021
Primary completion	31 October 2023
Estimated completion	31 October 2023
Sites	1 location across Belgium

Drugs / interventions tested

• Lumbar discectomy

Conditions studied

• Lumbar Radiculopathy — all drugs for Lumbar Radiculopathy →
• Central Sensitisation — all drugs for Central Sensitisation →

Sponsor

University Ghent

Who can join

Adults 18 to 65, any sex, with Lumbar Radiculopathy or Central Sensitisation. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Lumbar discectomy (i.e. surgically removing a hernia) is frequently performed in Belgium to treat lumbar radiculopathy. Every year \>12,000 interventions are performed with variable long-term results. The treatment success of this procedure varies and up to 41% of the patients report post-operative persistent pain complaints, and consequently suffer from failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS). Chronic complaints in FBSS following lumbar discectomy are usually treated with symptomatic interventions (including painkillers, neuromodulation, etc), rather than from a biopsychosocial perspective.

In order to develop a focused and effective treatment strategy, it is crucial to first gain insight into how persons with persistent complaints after lumbar discectomy differ from those without persistent symptoms. Different known contributing factors entail type of surgery, muscle and psychosocial impairments. Although in scientific and clinical literature it is assumed that dysfunctional pain processing also plays an important mechanistic role in FBSS, there is a lack of research to support this. However, this knowledge is crucial to depict the full mechanistic picture of pain generators and potentiators in FBSS.

Therefore, we will examine whether residual complaints persisting following lumbar discectomy can be accounted for by underlying dysfunctional pain processing and whether a clinical classification algorithm can be used to identify the predominant pain mechanism in these patients.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial.