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Updated: Feb 16, 2026
Full-Endoscopic Transforaminal Approach for Lumbar Discectomy
Published on: September 8, 2023
Comparison of Percutaneous Endoscopic Lumbar Diskectomy and Open Lumbar Microdiskectomy for Recurrent Lumbar Disk
Jung-Sup Lee1, Hyeun-Sung Kim2, Yong-Hun Pee1
1Department of Neurosurgery, Jooan Nanoori Hospital, Seoul, South Korea.
Objective:
To establish the appropriateness of transforaminal percutaneous endoscopic lumbar diskectomy (PELD) by comparing it with open lumbar microdiskectomy (OLM) for surgical treatment of recurrent lumbar disk herniation.
Methods:
We retrospectively analyzed 83 patients who underwent revision surgery (group A: PELD, 35 cases; group B: OLM, 48 cases) for recurrent lumbar disk herniation between March 2009 and April 2014. All of the patients were followed > 12 months. To evaluate outcomes, we checked the leg and back visual analog scale (VAS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), complications, and recurrence for all patients.
Results:
The mean improvement of VAS for leg was 5.97 ± 0.98 for group A and 5.62 ± 1.42 for group B (p = 0.194). The mean improvement of VAS for back pain was 2.71 ± 1.30 for group A and 2.29 ± 1.41 for group B (p = 0.168). The mean improvement of ODI scores was 28.86 ± 3.93 for group A and 28.00 ± 4.22 for group B (p = 0.350). Total surgery-related complications were none for group A and nine for group B (p = 0.009). Group A had one subject with surgery-related neurologic symptoms and group B had four (p = 0.391). Recurrence occurred in two patients in group A and seven patients in group B (p = 0.291).
Conclusion:
PELD and OLM have favorable clinical outcomes in patients with recurrent lumbar disk herniation, and PELD results in fewer complications compared with OLM. Therefore, PELD may be a better alternative to OLM for patients with recurrent lumbar disk herniation.
