title: Lumbar percutaneous discectomy. Initial experience in 28 cases.
abstract: Since November 1988, 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 short-term 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.
authors.affiliation: Neuroradiological Institute, University of Saarland, Homburg/Saar, Federal Republic of Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Faubert
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Caspar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007403:Intervertebral Disc / Q000601:surgery*; D007405:Intervertebral Disc Displacement / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000601:surgery*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009192:Myelography; D013997:Time Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome