ABSTRACT

Aim:

The aim of the study is evaluating the early results of unilateral posterior lumbar interbody fusion (UPLIF) technique with discectomy to prevent recurrence at degenerative disc disease (DDD) comparing with simple discectomy using visual pain scale (VPS).

Material and methods:

Control group had 50 degenerative disc disease patients who underwent simple discectomy. In study group there were totally 42 patients, twelve patients had recurrent disc herniations, thirty patients had DDD. In this group polyetheretherketon (PEEK) cage was used for protecting the disc height and prevent recurrence. All patients were followed by the help of VPS and clinical exams and the groups were compared to each other statistically.

Results:

In control group there is recurrences and postoperatively higher VPS scores. In the study group there’s no recurrences and decrease of the VPS scores.

Conclusion:

As a result of our study if the patient has degenerative disc disease then after discectomy using unilateral posterior PEEK cage and interbody grafting is a safer way for treatment of these kind of patients.