Results of transforaminal endoscopic discectomy for lumbosacral disc herniation added by nucleoplasty

Introduction Herniated disks are very common. Percutaneous endoscopic lumbar spine surgery for the lumbar disc herniation facilitates minimalized access ports to the operating site with decreased risk of infection, reduced blood loss and less tissue dissection and muscle trauma. The goal was to compare the results of standard transforaminal endoscopic discectomy for lumbosacral herniation and outcomes of the procedure added by nucleoplasty. Material and methods Percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy was performed for 92 patients and added by nucleoplasty in 43 patients of group I. Preoperative and postoperative evaluation was produced with the Visual Analog Pain Scale (VAS), the Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire (ODI) and the MacNab clinical outcome score. Complication and recurrence rate was reviewed. Microsoft Office Excell and Statistica 8.0 were used to complete data analysis reports. Results VAS scores decreased from 7.9 to 3.1 showing 2.5-fold decrease (p