Extruded and protruded lumbar discs: combined clinical, histopathological, histochemical, immunopathological,...

A total number of selected 252 patients with prolapsed lumbar intervertebral discs (92 extruded and 160 protruded) were operated upon in Neurosurgery Department Zagazig University Hospital during the period extended from January, 1988, to October 1990. In this study we reviewed their clinical and operative data. Surgical biopsies were taken from randomly selected 120 patients of them (50 extruded and 70 protruded discs) and were subjected to histopathological, histochemical and immunopathological studies. Ultrastructural study was performed for randomly selected 14 cases (7 extruded and 7 protruded discs). The results were compared with 7 normal intervertebral discs obtained from these studies showed that there were no differences between extruded and protruded discs at the histochemical level. Cell mediated immunity could be added as a factor in the pathogenesis of the degenerative process that lead to disc prolapse (in 20% of cases with extruded discs and 57.1% of cases with protruded discs). At the ultrastructural level 85.3% of extruded discs were prolapsed nucleus pulposus while 14.7% were prolapsed annulus fibrosus alone or with nucleus pulposus. All protruded discs were prolapsed annulus fibrosus with nucleus pulposus. These findings may have an impact on the management of this common problem.