[Lateral lumbar disk herniation]

The authors present the clinical evaluation of 41 patients with extreme lateral disc herniation in the lumbar spine. This group of patients represented 3.1% of all patients operated to to discopathy of the lumbar spine at the Department of Neurosurgery of the Medical Academy of Białystock in the years 1988-1997. Males constituted 95.1% of the study series, with an age range 41-60 years. In 92.7% of the patients extreme lateral herniation was diagnosed either at L4-L5 level or L5-S1 level. In 78.1% of the cases different types of motoric disturbances were observed, while in 65.8% radicular type disorders in superficial sensibility were noted.