INTRODUCTION Coblation nucleoplasty is a minimally invasive method, at middle way between conservative and open surgical treatment of patients with degenerative disc disease and lumbar disc protrusion. Authors compare the outcome of patients treated through the two methods. MATERIAL AND RESULTS Two groups of 80 patients each were treated through open discectomy and nucleoplasty. Patients with...

abstract   background: far lateral discal herniation is an uncommon disorder and is difficult to assess by physical examination alone. this study is designed to define clinical and epidemiological findings and to establish the indications of surgical and medical treatment for flldh.   methods: between 2000 and 2005, a total of 2035 patients with lumbar disc herniation underwent surgical discect...

Microsurgery for lumbar herniated discs that require surgical intervention is a very successful and well-described technique, whether performed through more traditional "open" microsurgical retractors or through minimally-invasive "tube" retractors. Surgery for extruded lumbar disc fragments that migrate caudad or cephalad from the disc origin may typically require modifying the standard hemila...