title: Clinical follow-up of 50 patients treated by percutaneous lumbar discectomy.
abstract: A series of 50 patients presenting with lumbar discogenic disease, and treated by percutaneous discectomy using the Dekompressor system (Stryker, Kalamazoo, MI, USA), were followed for more than 6 months, by analyzing the evolution of the painful symptomatology with the visual analog scale (VAS) system. All patients had been under treatment with analgesic or anti-inflammatory agents. The intensity of the pain was measured 2, 7, 30, and 180 days after the percutaneous discectomy. An improvement in the painful symptomatology of less than 30%, observed in 11 cases and in 1 case of epidural pathology, was considered an unsuccessful result. A decrease of the pain of more than 70% was observed in 72% of cases, either with the end of the symptoms of pain as noted in 79.5% of patients or with a marked reduction of the medical treatments obtained in 21.5%. The results obtained were already almost definitive at the seventh day of follow-up, and further controls rarely demonstrated an improvement in the pain. The location of the herniated disc is a parameter which appears to be very important in the efficacy of percutaneous discectomy. We noted an improvement of more than 70% in 79% of the posterolateral foraminal or extraforaminal hernias, although these favorable results were observed only in 50% of the posteromedian hernias.
authors.affiliation: Service d'Imagerie Médicale et Interventionelle, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice, Hôpital l'Archet, F-06202 Nice Cedex 2, France. amorettinicolas@yahoo.fr
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Amoretti
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: David
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grimaud
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Flory
authors.forename: Istvan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hovorka
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Roux
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chevallier
authors.forename: Jean-Noël
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Bruneton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001416:Back Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017587:Diskectomy, Percutaneous / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007405:Intervertebral Disc Displacement / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016896:Treatment Outcome