Clinical Outcomes of Percutaneous Lumbar Discectomy Using Dekompressor(R)

Han, Sun Sook; Sim, Sung Eun; Kim, Yang Hyun; Lee, Eun Hyoung; Joh, Ju Yeon; Kim, Ji Young; Lee, Sang Chul

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Discogenic leg pain is a major cause of health problems, often due to herniation of the intervertebral disc, and has traditionally been treated conservatively or with an open surgical discectomy. Conventional open surgery has many complications, such as nerve root injury, discitis and a relatively high mortality rate; failure of conservative treatments is also common. Recently, the Dekompressor(R) Percutaneous Lumbar Discectomy probe was developed. Herein, we present the early results for a percutaneous lumbar discectomy in herniated lumbar disc disease. METHODS: Eleven patients, including 8 men and 3 women, with ages ranging from 22 to 78 years, were enrolled in this study. Those patients with a previous history of back surgery were not excluded from the study. All patients were postoperatively evaluated for their clinical outcomes, such as visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain after 1 and 3 months, reduction in analgesics, functional improvement and overall satisfaction. RESULTS: The percutaneous lumbar discectomy was completed in 11 patients (17 levels), with average reductions in pre-VAS of 61.3 and 60.2% at 1 and 3 months, respectively. Also, 72.7% of patients reported functional improvement, with 81.1% expressing overall satisfaction. There were no procedural related complications. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that a percutaneous lumbar discectomy is a safe and effective treatment modality for a herniated lumbar disc.