Researchers published an article based on their study about surgical treatment of lumbar disc herniation in The Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques.
The study examined 54 patients who received microsurgical fragmentectomy between January 2001 and June 2003 for single-level lumbar disc herniation. The researchers found:
• 88.9 percent reported excellent outcomes
• 26 percent reported good outcomes
• Long term back and leg pain improvement was reported in 89.8 percent and 88 percent of the patients who reported back or leg pain initially
• 11.1 percent of the patients needed reoperations on the same level
"Our long-term outcome study shows that a minimally invasive approach to microdiscectomy with removal of the fragment only is an effective way to treat lumbar disc herniation," concluded the study authors.
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