An Update of the Systematic Assessment of Mechanical Lumbar Disc Decompression with Nucleoplasty

Abstract

Background: Lumbar disc prolapse, protrusion, and extrusion account for less than 5% of all low back problems, but are the most common causes of nerve root pain and surgical interventions. The primary rationale for any form of surgery for disc prolapse is to relieve nerve root irritation or compression due to herniated disc material. The primary modality of treatment continues to be either open or microdiscectomy, although several alternative techniques are also utilized, including nucleoplasty, automated percutaneous discectomy and laser discectomy. There is a paucity of evidence for all decompression techniques, specifically alternative techniques including nucleoplasty. Study Design: A systematic review of the literature of mechanical lumbar disc decompression with nucleoplasty. Objective: To determine the effectiveness and update the effectiveness of mechanical lumbar disc decompression with nucleoplasty. Methods: The available literature on mechanical lumbar disc decompression with nucleoplasty was reviewed. The quality assessment and clinical relevance criteria utilized were the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Review Group criteria as utilized for interventional techniques for randomized trials and the criteria developed by the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale criteria for observational studies. The level of evidence was classified as good, fair, and limited or poor based on the quality of evidence developed by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Data sources included relevant literature identified through searches of PubMed and EMBASE from 1966 to September 2012, and manual searches of the bibliographies of known primary and review articles. Outcome Measures: Pain relief and functional improvement were the primary outcome measures. Other outcome measures were improvement of psychological status, reduction in opioid intake, and return to work. Short-term effectiveness was defined as one year or less, whereas long-term effectiveness was defined as greater than one year. Results: For this systematic review, 37 studies were considered for inclusion. Of these, there was one randomized trial and 14 observational studies meeting inclusion criteria for methodological quality assessment. Based on USPSTF criteria, the level of evidence for nucleoplasty is limited to fair in managing radicular pain due to contained disc herniation. Limitations: A paucity of literature with randomized trials. Conclusion: This systematic review illustrates limited to fair evidence for nucleoplasty in managing radicular pain due to contained disc herniation. Key words: Intervertebral disc disease, chronic low back pain, disc herniation, disc protrusion, radiculitis, contained disc herniation, mechanical disc decompression, nucleoplasty, Coblation technology, nucleotomy

A New Role for Epidurography: A Simple Method for Assessing the Adequacy of Decompression during Percutaneous Plasma Disc Decompression

“…Numerous studies have found favorable results with PPDD in the treatment of discogenic low back pain and herniated lumbar disc, especially contained disc protrusion [ 6 , 7 , 10 , 12 , 18 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. The success rate of substantial pain relief post-PPDD varies from 6.3% to 84% [ 5 , 24 , 32 , 33 ].…”

Intradiscal Gelified Ethanol Nucleolysis versus Endoscopic Surgery for Lumbar Disc Herniation Radiculopathy

“…When compared to conservative therapy, percutaneous decompression techniques were shown to provide significantly better and longer lasting effects; in addition, various comparative studies and systematic reviews of the literature focusing mainly on mechanical, thermal, and ozone chemical decompression showed non-inferiority when compared to surgical options [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Among the percutaneous decompressive techniques for the management of intervertebral disc herniation nucleolysis is a minimally invasive, image-guided technique during which a wide variety of chemical agents can be intradiscally injected aiming to gradually dehydrate and shrink the target herniated disc.…”

Radiation exposure and clinical outcome in patients undergoing percutaneous intradiscal ozone therapy for disc herniation: Fluoroscopic versus conventional CT guidance

“…Magnetic Resonance (MR) is the method of choice for the diagnosis of radicular disc compression, allowing the analysis of all structures involved in LBP [ 7 ]. Possible treatments include physical and/or drug therapy, massage traction, minimally invasive therapy, and surgical therapy [ 8 , 9 ]. All treatments have the same rationale that consists in reducing disc volume and nerve root compression.…”