Table 3.

Functional outcomes of patients in the two groups

	Group L (n = 52)	Group S (n = 36)	P Value
ODI
PRE	67.88 ± 8.11	66.83 ± 7.40	.537
1 MONTH	26.75 ± 4.61*	26.06 ± 3.75*	.456
FINAL	25.87 ± 4.54*	28.08 ± 3.71*	.017**
VAS
PRE	7.35 ± 0.95	7.22 ± 0.80	.522
1 MONTH	2.67 ± 0.90*	2.69 ± 0.89*	.913
FINAL	2.54 ± 0.67*	3.02 ± 0.77*	.002**

ODI: Oswestry Disability Index; VAS: Visual Analogue Scale. PRE: preoperative, 1 MONTH: one month after surgery, FINAL: final follow-up

* Significance compared with the preoperative, P < 0.05

** Significance between the two groups, P < 0.05