Percutaneous discectomy in lumbar disc herniation treatment

Abstract

Background: Multiple surgical treatment methods of a disc herniation are known our days but some controversies may occur in the individual selection of the operation type. In spite of the registered successes in degenerative pathology treatment, the term of “Failed back syndrome” was established. This in turn has imposed the development and implementation of minimally invasive techniques, such as percutaneous discectomy (PD). The main goal of current study was the evaluation of the efficiency of PD in pain syndrome reduction (by VAS scale) at lumbar disc herniation (LDH) treatment. Material and methods: The study was based on the analysis of 100 cases with LDH, that were operated in 2016 – 2020 through PD. The results of the treatment were appreciated according to the pain relief, neurological deficit reduction, the psycho-emotional state improvement, decrease of analgesic intake, length of hospitalization and the return to daily activity (Denis scale). Results: PD proved to be a convenient method of treatment. Out of 100 patients, 78 showed the disappearance of pain and the reduction of the neurological deficit after the procedure, 12 patients showed improvements over 3 months according to the Denis Scale. 10 patients underwent microsurgical treatment due to the absence of improvement in syndromes. Conclusions: The results of the study showed an effectiveness of 78% of the total, with the improvement of the VAS and Denis Scales criteria and a fast and early recovery of patients. At the same time, their hospital stay was reduced by only 24 hours.