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PROGNOSTIC RELEVANCE OF LUMBAR DISCOGRAPHY İN PLDD OF LUMBAR DISC PROTRUSION AND HERNIATION

  • W.V. TEMPELHOFF
  • S. TOKTAMİS
  • F. ULRICH
  • W.J. BOCK

J Turk Spinal Surg 1994;5(2):65-66

Percutaneous Laser therapy of lumbar disc protrusion and herniation started to replace chemonucleolysis as a "minimally invasive method". Since summer 1993 we chose 32 patients (16 male, 16 female, aged 24-65 years) to perform PLDD-therapy; ali of them suffered from lumbar disc protrusions/herniations. The follovv up examination, shows that those patients never had long term-improvement; none of them hovvever deteriorated. Only a small percentage ofthe group showed an improvement of pain (33%) or neurological symptoms (17%), the majority re-mained unchanged (67% persisting pain, 83% neurological symptoms). There are about 70% of PLDD-Patients with a good outcome/improved complaints and neurological findings during the first year after treatment (4; 2; 7) if discography is performed ant its result is considered. İt appears that clinical success after PLDD depends mainly on a critical selection of patients, including especially the results of preoperative discography; patients with rup-tured anulus fibrosus should be treated by conventional surgery.

Keywords: Lumbar discography, Laser therapy.