Identifying classes with different disability profiles among patients undergoing lumbar discectomy: a latent…

Cohort studyInternational journal of rehabilitation research. Internationale Zeitschrift fur Rehabilitationsforschung. Revue internationale de recherches de readaptation· Sep 2026

Identifying classes with different disability profiles among patients undergoing lumbar discectomy: a latent class analysis.

Mikhail Saltychev, Konsta Koivunen, Katri Pernaa, Juhani Juhola

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SpineCohort studyPrognosisQ3IF 1.3

About 30% of lumbar discectomy patients fall into a severe multi-domain disability class.

Identifying classes with different disability profiles among patients undergoing lumbar discectomy: a latent class analysis.

Mikhail Saltychev … Juhani Juhola

International journal of rehabilitation research · Sep 2026 · Q3 in General Medicine

Purpose

The objective of this retrospective register-based study among 534 patients undergoing lumbar discectomy was to identify larger classes with different functional profiles.

Results

nearly a third have severe disability across most function domains

No or mild disability

26%

Moderate restrictions

26%

Moderate restrictions

19%

Severe disability in m

30%

More results

Main statistical method was latent class analysis.

The mean age was 46.0 (17.8) years.

It seems that there are larger classes whose disability domains are distributed in a different way than other classes.

More results

Belonging to a particular class can potentially be predicted by descriptive factors such as sex, age, pain intensity and pain history.

“

Conclusion

This information can help identify risks that predict particularly severe disability and recognize the most common functional limitations that may be overlooked if all the patients are treated as a homogeneous group and the severity of disability is described by only one composite score .

Identifying classes with different disability profiles among patients undergoing lumbar discectomy: a latent class analysis.

Identifying classes with different disability profiles among patients undergoing lumbar discectomy: a latent class analysis.

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