STUDY DESIGN Systematic literature review and meta-analysis of English language studies. OBJECTIVE This study is a meta-analysis assessing elite athlete's return-to-play (RTP) rates after a lumbar herniated nucleus pulposus (HNP) treated with microdiscectomy. Additionally, we compare RTP rates of those treated operatively versus nonoperatively. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Microdiscectomy for...

OBJECTIVE To determine clinical and radiological factors that predict the successful outcome of percutaneous disc decompression (PDD) in patients with lumbar herniated nucleus pulposus (HNP). METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the clinical and radiological features of patients who underwent lumbar PDD from April 2009 to March 2013. Sixty-nine patients with lumbar HNP were studied. Clinical o...