Percutaneous Discectomy — Personal Observations of 27 Cases

Abstract

It is now 60 years since the late Dr. Walter E. Dandy wrote the paper that called the attention of the medical world to the entity of herniation of the lumbar intervertebral disc [1]. From that time until the present, there has been a neverending outpouring of papers giving details of surgical techniques used in the effort to correct the back and sciatic pain, associated with neurological involvement including motor weakness, sensory impairment, and reflex changes in the lower extremities, together with the varying responses of the patient to the modalities of treatment employed. Even so, few basic changes have emerged from all the papers on the surgical treatment of protruded lumbar discs.