Long-Term Course to Lumbar Disc Resorption Patients and Predictive Factors Associated with Disc Resorption

Table 4

Outcome measures assessed through phone interview.

Variables
		%	Mean ± SD
Time interval between initial visit and phone interview (months)			51.86 ± 19.07
NRS of pain at baseline			8.34 ± 1.42
NRS of current pain			1.27 ± 1.57
Recommendation of surgery
Recommended for surgery	168	54.2
Not recommended for surgery	112	36.1
Do not know	6	1.9
Did not visit conventional medicine institution	24	7.7
Awareness of possibility of disc resorption
Aware	83	26.8
Unaware	227	73.2
Experience of symptom recurrence
Yes	94	30.3
No	212	68.4
Do not know	4	1.3
Treatment type used for recurrence
Korean medicine treatment	104	36.1
Conventional nonsurgical treatment	14	4.9
Surgery	7	2.4
No recurrence requiring treatment	163	56.6
Satisfaction with Korean medicine treatment
Very satisfied	159	51.5
Satisfied	120	38.8
Slightly satisfied	28	9.1
Unsatisfied	1	0.3
Very unsatisfied	1	0.3
Recommendation of treatment to others
Surgical treatment	4	1.3
Nonsurgical treatment	292	94.2
Do not know	14	4.5
Effective Korean medicine treatment type
Herbal medicine	64	20.7
Bee venom pharmacopuncture, pharmacopuncture	135	43.6
Acupuncture	26	8.4
Chuna manipulation	60	19.4
Do not know	61	19.7

Baseline timepoint was assessed retrospectively at the time of follow-up survey; SD, standard deviation; NRS, numeric rating scale.