Percutaneous diskectomy in the treatment of pediatric lumbar disk disease

Intervertebral lumbar disk herniation in children and adolescents is rare. The incidence varies between 0.8% and 3.8% of all disks treated surgically. The uncertainty concerning operative or conservative treatment of this rare clinical entity has led to considering the use of atraumatic techniques, such as chemonucleolysis or percutaneous diskectomy. We report the unusual case of an 11-year-old girl with herniated disk at the L4-5 level treated by percutaneous diskectomy. This is, to our knowledge, the first case of a child treated by this technique. The technical simplicity, the minimal trauma it causes, and the excellent clinical result show that percutaneous diskectomy is a reasonable therapeutic alternative in the treatment of juvenile disks.