Summary
Since november 88, 28 patients with lumbar L5 radiculopathy refractory to conservative care and with a radiologically verified central or mediolateral disc herniation at the level of L4/L5 had had a percutaneous discectomy. Radiological verification consisted of spinal CT +/- myelography, +/- myelo-CT, +/- MRI. A shortterm follow-up analysis of at least 2 months taking the clinical and functional status as well as the professional reintegration into account revealed a 64.3% (18/28 patients) satisfactory outcome and a 32.1% (10/28 patients) failure rate. Of the latter 28.6% (8/28 patients) required further open surgery. One patient whose pain had only partially in regressed was shown at open operation to have a sequestered cranial prolapse as revealed by spinal CT after the percutaneous procedure. There were no major complications. One patient developed a sequestered extraforaminal herniation through the nucleotomy canal three weeks after the procedure. One patient bled for 2 minutes. There were no major vessel injuries. One patient reported local muscular pain, and enhanced nerve root pain after introduction of the trocar sleeve.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Caspar W, Iwa H (1979) A microsurgical operation for lumbar disc herniations. Neurological surgery 6:657–662
Caspar W (1988) The microsurgical technique for herniated lumbar disc operations, 4th ed. Aesculap AG Scientific information, Tuttlingen, pp 6–7
Hijikata S, Jamagishim, Nakayama T, Oormosik (1975) Percutaneous discectomy: a new treatment method for lumbar disc herniation. J Toden Hosp 5:5–13
Suezawa Y, Jacob AC (1986) Percutaneous nucleotomy, an alternative to spinal surgery. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg 105:287–295
Maroon JC, Onik G (1987) Percutaneous automated discectomy: a new method for lumbar disc removal. J Neurosurg 66:143–146
Kanter SL, Friedmann WA (1985) Percutaneous discectomy: an anatomical study. Neurosurgery 16:141–147
Onik G (1989) Summation of APLD clinical experience. International symposium on the state of art of percutaneous lumbar discectomy, May 25–26, Marbella, Spain (Paper 38)
Schneiderman G, Flannigon B, Kingston S, Thomas J, Dillin WH, Watkins RG (1987) Magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of disc degeneration: correlation with discography. Spine 12: 275–281
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Faubert, C., Caspar, W. Lumbar percutaneous discectomy. Neuroradiology 33, 407–410 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00598613
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00598613