Clinical Summary
Lumbar Outcome
Physician - Clinical - Lumbar Nucleoplasty Clinical Outcome
Clinical - Lumbar Nucleoplasty Clinical Outcome:
Percutaneous Nucleoplasty for Discoradicular Conflict.
A. Alexandre, L. Coro, A. Azuelos
and M. Pellone
Acta Neurochir (2005) [Suppl] 92: 83-86
Key Point
Large case series highlighting procedure safety and excellent clinical outcomes
at one year follow up.
Analysis
• 1390 patients for lumbosciatalgic pain caused by disc pathology.
• Follow up at 15 days, 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year.
Outcome
• bulging reduced or eliminated in over 80 percent of cases
• Reduced in 48%
• Excellent clinical results for contained disc herniations
Quality of Life Assessment in Patients Undergoing Nucleoplasty-Based
Percutaneous Discectomy.
P. C. Gerszten, W. C. Welch and J. T. King Jr. Journal of Neurosurgery:
Spine (2006) 4: 36-42.
Key Point
Significant improvement in a variety of clinical outcome measures.
Analysis
• Prospective non-randomized longitudinal cohort study.
• 67 Patients; 22 multiple level; 42 bilateral treatments.
• 3 and 6 month follow-up.
• No infections or nerve root injuries.
• Significant improvement in quality of life at 3 months and continued at 6 months.
Outcome
• Effective minimally invasive surgical treatment for contained herniated discs
The Results of Nucleoplasty in Patients with Lumbar Herniated
Disc: A Prospective Clinical Study of 52 Consecutive Patients.
H. Mirzai, I. Tekin,
O. Yaman and A. Bursali
The Spine Journal 7
(2007) 88-93
Key Point
Effective in patients with radiculopathy. Significant reduction in VAS, ODI, and
analgesics use.
Analysis
• Prospective clinical study of 52 consecutive patients with lumbar disc herniations.
• Radicular pain resistant to previous therapy and medical treatment for at least
3 months.
• Discography performed to evaluate annular integrity prior to Nucleoplasty.
• Mean VAS reduced from 7.15 to 2.1 at 1 year.
• Mean Oswestry decreased from 42.2 to 20.5 at 1 year.
Outcome
• Excellent outcomes in carefully selected patients with leg pain caused by radicular
encroachment
• Use for patients with small (<6mm) contained disc herniations with a disc height
of >50% and with annular integrity.