Table 1.

Eligibility criteria for selecting studies.

	Included	Excluded
Population	Adults (aged 18 years and older) who underwent LDH surgery for leg pain with or without associated LBP	-Adults with leg and/or LBP caused by conditions other than LDH (e.g., fracture, infection, tumour, osteoporosis, inflammatory arthritis, cauda equina syndrome, spinal stenosis, or spondylolisthesis) -Adults who had failed back surgery syndrome
Intervention	Rehabilitation interventions (pharmacological [e.g., NSAIDs, analgesics] and non-pharmacological) initiated within the first three months after surgery	-Interventions for procedural/wound pain alone (e.g., administered within the first week after surgery only) -Interventions solely conducted at the societal level (e.g., barrier removal initiatives)
Comparison	Placebo/sham, control (e.g., usual care, wait-list control, no intervention), or another intervention
Outcomes	Patient-important outcomes as guided by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework (e.g., pain, function)58: -Primary outcome: function measures at any time following the completion of post-surgical rehabilitation -Secondary outcomes included pain intensity, adverse events related to the intervention, self-perceived recovery, quality of life, work outcomes, need for additional surgeries or healthcare, and symptoms of depression or anxiety
Study design	RCTs (≥30 participants per arm at baseline), cohort or case-control studies (≥100 participants per group at baseline), or mixed methods studies published in peer-reviewed journals. The minimum sample size requirements were considered the minimum needed for the normal distribution for the sampling distribution of the mean.12	Pilot studies assessing feasibility, protocol studies, cross-sectional studies, case reports, case series, systematic reviews and other review papers, clinical practice guidelines, biomechanical studies, laboratory studies, cadaveric or animal studies, and conceptual papers
Publication type	Published in peer-reviewed journals without language restrictions	Letters, editorials, commentaries, unpublished manuscripts, dissertations, government reports, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, meeting abstracts, lectures and addresses, consensus development statements, and guideline statements

LDH: lumbar disc herniation; LBP: low back pain; NSAIDs: non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; RCT: randomized controlled trial.