Treatment of cervical disc herniation through percutaneous minimally invasive techniques

The goal of this study is to compare the therapeutic effectiveness of percutaneous cervical discectomy, percutaneous cervical disc nucleoplasty, and a combination of the two for the treatment of cervical disc herniation and the effective stabilization of the cervical vertebral column.

A retrospective study was performed from February 2003 to April 2011. One hundred and seventy-one cervical disc herniation patients with a mean age of 47.8 years (ranging from 21 to 74 years) participated in the study and were treated with the three types of percutaneous minimally invasive techniques: percutaneous cervical discectomy (PCD, 97 cases), percutaneous cervical disc nucleoplasty (PCN, 50 cases), and a combination of the two (PCDN, 24 cases). After treatment, the postoperative clinical results and the stability of the cervical vertebral columns of these three groups were evaluated and compared.

Patients in the PCD group received follow-up care for approximately 4.1 years (ranging from 0.2 to 8.5 years), while those in the PCN group received only an average of 2.6 years (ranging from 0.3 to 7.8 years), and the PCDN group received an average of 3.3 years (ranging from 0.2 to 8 years of follow-up). According to the Japanese Orthopedic Association scoring system, the functional scores (JOA scores) differed significantly between the pre- and postoperative patients within the three groups (PCD t = 21.849, P = <0.05; PCN t = 14.503, P < 0.05; PCDN t = 8.555, P < 0.05). All patients had been successfully operated on by the same spinal surgeon team. According to the Odom criterion, the clinical outcomes were not significantly different for any of the three groups (the recovery rate using the JOA standard evaluation, F = 2.19, P = 0.116, P > 0.05). The percentages of each procedure that received either an excellent or a good rating were PCD at 81.35 %, PCN at 82.44 % and PCDN at 83.19 %. In addition, the clinical success rates among the three were not significantly different (P > 0.05). Notably, there was no postoperative instability of the cervical vertebral column in any of the patients (P > 0.05), and there was no difference in the pre- or postoperative stability of the cervical vertebral columns in each group.

Each group achieved good clinical outcomes with this safe, minimally invasive spinal surgery for the treatment of cervical disc herniation. In addition, no postoperative risk of cervical instability was found.