title: Clinical and electromyographic evaluation after chemonucleolysis for lumbar disk disease.
abstract: Results in 200 patients with lumbar disk disease who had chemonucleolysis were evaluated by two means. First, the surgeon evaluated the patients clinically from 6 to 30 months after chemonucleolysis by rating each case as excellent, good, fair, or unimproved. Results were judged excellent or good in 91% of the 153 "clean" cases (without previous operation) and in 53% of the 36 with previous operation; 11 patients were lost to follow-up. No patients were clinically worse than before treatment. Scond, a physiatrist did a repeat electromyogram three months or longer after chemonucleolysis. He judged a patient improved if there was a decrease or disappearance of the positive waves and/or fibrillation potentials noted on initial electromyogram. Based on these objective findings, 90.5% of "clean" cases and 85.4% overall showed improvement. Surgeons' clinical evaluations and the independent physiatrical evaluations based on objective electromyographic findings thus correlated closely.
mesh_terms: D001416:Back Pain / Q000188:drug therapy; D002917:Chymopapain / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004576:Electromyography; D010450:Endopeptidases / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007405:Intervertebral Disc Displacement / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000601:surgery; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae; D011379:Prognosis; D012585:Sciatica / Q000188:drug therapy
chemical_list: D010450:Endopeptidases; D002917:Chymopapain