Percutaneous endoscopic cervical discectomy with lamina-hole approach in treatment of cervical radiculopathy: an analysis of short-term clinical outcomes

Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinical outcomes of percutaneous endoscopic cervical discectomy with lamina-hole approach for cervical radiculopathy. Methods A retrospective case series study was conducted to analyze clinical data of 30 patients with cervical radiculopathy admitted in our department from May 2018 to December 2019. All patients underwent percutaneous endoscopic cervical discectomy with lamina-hole approach. The operative time, intraoperative blood loss, intraoperative complications were collected and analyzed. Neck disability index (NDI) and visual analogue scale (VAS) of neck and arm were used preoperatively, postoperatively and at the end of follow-up. Results All patients successfully completed the operation. Their operation time was 30~200 (84.5±36.5) min, and the intraoperative blood loss was 5~50 (20.5±11.8) mL. No neurovascular injury was observed intra-operatively and post-operatively. The follow-up time was 9~23 (14.3±4.0) months. The NDI scores were decreased from 61.3±13.2 pre-operatively to 26.6±7.4 post-operatively (P < 0.01), and further reduced to 9.8±3.5 at the last follow-up (P < 0.01). The VAS scores of the neck and arm were 5.2±0.7 and 6.5±1.1 before operation, and decreased to 3.1±0.7 and 2.8±0.7 (P < 0.01) after operation, respectively. At the last follow-up, the values were further reduced to 0.6±0.8 and 0.5±0.6 (P < 0.01), respectively. Conclusion Percutaneous endoscopic cervical discectomy with lamina-hole approach is a new option for cervical radiculopathy, and can achieve the decompression of nerve root with preserving facet joint integrally.

Keywords

• cervical radiculopathy
• minimally invasive surgical procedure
• endoscopy
• discectomy