The Contrastive Study Of Ozone Ablation And Injection For Chronic Discogenic Low Back Pain

Objective To evaluate the preliminary clinical outcomes of ozone ablation and injection for patient with discogenic chronic low back pain and failing to respond to conservative treatment.Methods From Jan2008to Jan2010,208patients with discogenic chronic low back pain and failing to respond to conservative treatment were treated, Discography showed positive response.All patients were randomly divided into three groups,Ozone ablation、 combination Injection or Lidocaine Hydrochloride injection was performed by one doctor in the same way. Visual analogue scale(VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index(ODI) was evaluated before operation,1week,6months after operation and at12months.The clinical outcome was determined by modified Macnab criteria at12months after operation.Results The ozone ablation and injection were performed successfully in all cases.278cases were followed up for3～18months during which no other postoperative complications occurred. The mean VAS score of this series decreased significantly after the treatment in group A[preoperarion:6.73±1.69,1week after the operation was (3.35±0.79) and12months after operation was(2.55±0.37)](P<0.01) and group B[preoperarion:6.81±1.78,1month after the operation was (4.43±0.51) and12months after operation was(2.96±0.73)](P<0.01). group C[preoperarion:6.61±1.37,1month after the operation was (5.51±1.42) and12months after operation was(4.96±1.77)](P<0.01). There were no significant differences compared with the outcomes between A and B. The mean ODI show the same outcome like that.According to the modified Macnab criteria,in group A,54cases were graded as excellent,good in36,and fair in27,bad in11. suggesting an effective rate of70.31%. In group B,45cases were graded as excellent,good in33,and fair in37,bad in13. suggesting an effective rate of60.94%. In group C,no one case was graded as excellent,good in2,and fair in4,bad in16. suggesting an effective rate of9.09%.Conclusion Preliminary study suggest that ozone ablation is safe,effective in treating patient for discogenic chronic low back pain.It is show an more effective treatment than traditional injection.