Comparison Of Short-term Clinical Results Between Microendoscopic Lumbar Discectomy And Open Lumbar Discectomy

Purpose: To compare the short-term clinical results and traumatic effectsof microendoscopic lumbar discectomy(MED) and open lumbar discectomy. Methods: 60 patients suffering from single level lumbar disc herniationwas prospectively randomized to allocate into two groups, the MED group oropen discectomy group, with 30 cases in each group. Results: There are no differences in herniated levels, types, duration ofoperation, weight of removed discs, preoperative and postoperative JOAscores, excellent and good rate of operation and mean postoperative bodytemperature between the two groups. The excellent and good rate according tothe rate of JOA score was 96.7% and 93.3% respectively, and was notstatistically significant(P>0.05).While the average intraoperative blood losswas 36.8ml in MED group and 159.3ml in open discectomy group, which wasstatistically significant(P<0.05). Average postoperative drainage was 17.4mland 112.2ml respectively in MED group and open discectomy group(P<0.001),and mean postoperative hemoglobin amount was 13.5g/dl and12.7g/dl respectively. The mean time of bed rest was 4.3d and 15.7drespectively, and this is significantly different(P<0.001). Conclusion: When strictly select cases according to operative indications,MED and open discectomy will lead to similar clinical results. However,MED can significantly reduce intraoperative blood loss, shorten the time ofbed rest postoperatively. Hence, MED is a kind of minimally invasive andeffective method in treating single level lumbar disc herniation.