Clinical evaluation of percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy in the treatment of far lateral lumbar disc herniation / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate surgical techniques and clinical results of percutaneous transforam-inal endoscopic discectomy in the treatment of far lateral lumbar disc herniation. Methods Thirty-sev-en patients (24 males and 13 females) with far-lateral lumbar disc herniation were treated by percutane-ous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy from September 2005 to October 2008. The mean age of the pa-tients was 40.6 years. There were 19 patients (51.4%) with foraminal lumbar disc herniation, 11 (29.7%) with extraforaminal lumbar disc herniation and 7 (18.9%) with mixed lumbar disc herniation. The mean operation time, stay-in-bed time, postoperative hospital stay were 70 minutes, 9 hours and 5.0 days respectively. The mean operation costed mean 9 800 ￥ RMB. Results All the patients were fol-lowed up for an average period of 11.5 months. The efficacy of percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy was determined by Visual Analog Score (VAS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Nakai criteria. The mean value of VAS was significantly decreased from preoperative 8.3±2.3 to 3.1±1.6 at postoperative month 3, and to 2.9±1.9 at postoperative month 6 (P < 0.01). The mean value of ODI was significantly decreased from preoperative 64.5±23 to 23.6±12.0 at postoperative month 3, and to 12.9±7.0 at postoperative month 6 (P < 0.01). According to the Nakai criteria, the outcome of the op-eration was excellent in 19 patients (51%), good in 13 (35%), fair in 2 (5%) and poor in 3 (8%), with overall excellence rate of 87%. Conclusions Transforaminal percutaneous endoscopic discecto-my is safe and efficacious in the treatment of far lateral lumbar disc herniations, and proper selection of patients is the key factor to ensure the outcome of the operation.