# A comparative study on the clinical efficacy of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy and conventional open surgery in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation

## TL;DR

This study compares minimally invasive and traditional surgery for treating herniated discs, finding that the minimally invasive method offers better short-term outcomes with fewer complications.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates that single-channel percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy provides superior clinical outcomes compared to conventional open surgery for lumbar disc herniation.

## Key findings

- Single-channel PELD resulted in shorter operation time, smaller incision, less blood loss, and shorter hospital stay compared to conventional surgery.
- The observation group showed better improvements in ODI, VAS, and JOA scores at 7 days post-treatment.
- The observation group had lower levels of inflammatory markers and better lymphocyte subset changes compared to the control group.

## Abstract

To analyze the efficacy of single-channel percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD) and conventional open surgery in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation (LDH).

This is a retrospective study. A total of 66 patients with LDH admitted to Tianjin Medical University from June 2017 to June 2018 were divided into two groups: the observation group (single-channel PELD) and the control group (posterior lumbar interbody fusion), with 33 cases in each group. The two groups were compared in terms of visual analogue scale(VAS), oswestry disability index (ODI), Japanese Orthopaedic Association Score(JOA), perioperative indicators, clinical efficacy, postoperative complications, changes in inflammatory factors and serum T lymphocyte subsets.

The operation time, incision length, intraoperative blood loss, time in bed, hospital stay in the observation group were all lower than those in the control group. At 7d after treatment, the improvement of ODI, VAS and JOA in the observation group were better than that in the control group. At the last follow-up, there was no significant difference in Cobb angle and lumbar lordosis angle between the two groups. The levels of serum IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-α in the observation group were lower than those in the control group. The degree of reduction of serum CD3+ and CD4+ in the observation group were higher than those in the control group. And the level of elevation of CD8+ in the observation group was lower than that in the control group. Moreover, there was no significant difference in CD4+/CD8+ level between the two groups. The excellent rate of surgical results in the observation group was higher than that in the control group. Complications occurred in both groups, with no significant difference between the two groups.

Single-channel PELD can achieve superior clinical efficacy over conventional open surgery in the treatment of LDH.