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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Surg.
Sec. Orthopedic Surgery
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2024.1519952
This article is part of the Research Topic Pain Management in Spine Surgery View all 3 articles

Percutaneous unilateral biportal endoscopic discectomy for symptomatic lumbar disc herniation in geriatric patients

Provisionally accepted
Rongqing Qin Rongqing Qin *Anhong Guan Anhong Guan Min Zhu Min Zhu Pin Zhou Pin Zhou Bing Zhou Bing Zhou Ruihua Zhou Ruihua Zhou Zaiyong Guan Zaiyong Guan
  • Gaoyou People's Hospital, Yangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the surgical efficacy and safety of percutaneous unilateral biportal endoscopic discectomy (UBED) for symptomatic lumbar disc herniation (LDH) in geriatric patients. Methods 72 geriatric patients with single or two-level LDH who underwent UBED from January 2020 to September 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. Ages of them ranged from 65 to 86 years (mean 73.2 years). Clinical outcomes were evaluated by operation time, total blood loss, hospital stay, visual analogue scale (VAS) score for leg pain, the Oswestry disability index (ODI) score, modified Macnab criteria and postoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Results Surgery was successfully treated in all geriatri patients with an mean operation time of 46 minutes (range: 32-68 minutes). All patients were followed up for a average duration of 14.2 ±1.9 months (range: 12-16 months). The leg pain VAS score was decreased from 8.37±1.21 preoperatively to 2.03±0.61, 1.56±0.32, 1.16±0.45 and 0.91±0.26 at immediately after surgery and 1, 6, 12 months postoperatively. The ODI score was also dropped from 61.21±11.06 preoperatively to 27.52±10.41, 19.12±7.05, 12.17±5.21 and 8.56±4.32 at immediately after surgery and 1, 6, 12 months postoperatively. Significantly statistical difference was observed in both VAS and ODI score at each follow-up time point when compared with the preoperative parameters (P<0.01). And there were 53 excellent cases, 12 good cases and 7 fair cases based on the modified MacNab criteria at 12 months postoperatively, with an excellent and good rate of 90.2%. Only 2 cases were found complicated with low extremity numbness, which were recovered via conservative treatment in three weeks. No infection or iatrogenic neurological deficit was occured in all patients. Conclusions We considered that UBED achieved satisfactory results and provided a minimally invasive, effective and safe alternative for the treatment of symptomatic LDH in geriatric patients.

    Keywords: Unilateral biportal endoscopic discectomy, Lumbar disc herniation, Minimally invasive, geriatric, Spine surgery

    Received: 30 Oct 2024; Accepted: 26 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Qin, Guan, Zhu, Zhou, Zhou, Zhou and Guan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Rongqing Qin, Gaoyou People's Hospital, Yangzhou, China

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