| Abstract: | Objective: To investigate the surgical procedlures,options and surgical indications for far-lateral lumbar disc herniation between three different minimally invasive procedures.Methods: From January 2000 to October 2006, 52 patients with far-lateral lumbar disc herniation (29 males and 23 females, with the average age of 41.5 years) were treated with minimally invasive procedures. All the patients were assessed by X-ray and CT. Some were given additional myeography, discography, Computerized tomography myelography (CTM) and MRI examination. Yeung Endoscopy Spine System (YESS), METRx and X-tube procedures were performed in 25, 13 and 14 cases, respectively. All patients were followed up for a mean period of 13.5 months. Clinical outcomes were assessed by visual analog score (VAS) and Nakai criteria. Results: The results indicated that the three procedures could significantly improve the radiating leg symptoms (P<0.05). The postoperative overall excellent and good rates of YESS, METRx and X-tube procedures were 84.0%,84.6% and 92.8% respectively, with no statistical difference among three groups (P>O.05). The YESS procedure had several advantages including shortest operation time, simplest anesthesia and least trauma as compared with the other two procedures, especially for simple type I far-lateral lumbar disc herniation. METRx procedure was specially suitable for simple type II. And the procedure of posterior endoscopic facetectomy, posterior lumbar interbody fusion and unilateral pedicle screw instrumentation with X-tube was designed for far-lateral disc herniation combined with degenerative lumbar instability. Conclusion: Minimally invasive strategies and options should be determined by different types of far-lateral lumbar disc herniation. |
