Nucleoplasty

STUDY DESIGN: A systemic review of thermal annular procedures (TAPs) and percutaneous disk decompression procedures (PDDPs) for the treatment of discogenic chronic low back pain (CLBP) was conducted. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review is to evaluate and to compare the effectiveness of TAPs and PDDPs in treating discogenic CLBP and to assess the frequency of complications associated with those procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: English-language journal articles were identified through computerized searches of the PubMed database and bibliographies of identified articles and review papers...

BACKGROUND: Good short- and mid-term clinical efficacy of percutaneous cervical nucleoplasty (PCN) for cervical degenerative diseases (CDD) with neck pain has been reported. However, few studies have assessed its long-term influence on patients with both neck pain and cervical vertigo. This study aimed to evaluate the curative efficacy of PCN for CDD with neck pain and cervical vertigo with minimum of 6 years of follow-up. METHODS: Inpatients who underwent PCN for CDD with neck pain and cervical vertigo between April 2010 and March 2013 were enrolled...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the direct costs of various spinal surgical procedures within 1 year of follow-up and to compare the profiles of neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons. METHODS: All spinal procedures performed within a 10-month period in patients covered by a private insurance company were included. Costs related to the spinal interventions were systematically registered in the company database. Associated costs during the 1-year follow-up were recorded. RESULTS: In total, 1,862 patients were included, with a total cost of €11,050,970, of whom 34...

OBJECTIVE: Percutaneous cervical nucleoplasty (PCN) is used to treat cervical disc herniation. Radiological imaging studies, including plain radiography, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), have been used to make early predictions of cervical spinal surgery outcomes. However, simple radiological studies do not provide sufficiently detailed information; moreover, CT and MRI are highly expensive. Herein, we aimed to elucidate the usefulness of digital infrared thermography imaging (DITI) as an outcome marker after cervical nucleoplasty by correlating the changes in thermal difference (ΔTD) with the changes in pain intensity after PCN expressed as visual analogue scale (ΔVAS) scores...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical effects of percutaneous coblation nucleoplasty in treating cervical spondylotic radiculopathy and investigate its mechanism of action. METHODS: Form January 2015 to January 2017, 21 patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy were treated by percutaneous coblation nucleoplasty, including 8 males and 13 females with an average age of 49.6 years old ranging from 43 to 61 years old. The course of disease was for 1 to 6 months with a median age of 4 months...

Study Design: Prospective analysis. Objectives: To evaluate 2-year clinical outcomes in patients undergoing Disc-FX for the management of low back pain (LBP) due to degenerate disc (DD) or contained lumbar disc herniation (CLDH). To study salient factors that can potentially influence the clinical outcomes. Methods: We analyzed the prospectively collected data of 51 patients who underwent Disc-FX procedure for DD or CLDH, nonresponsive to 6 months of nonoperative treatment...

OBJECTIVE: In percutaneous cervical nucleoplasty (PCN) a portion of the nucleus tissue is ablated using the Coblation technique. Re-surgery is an important factor for the clinical outcome. However, the rate of subsequent surgery after PCN is still unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of an additional open surgery after PCN in a retrospective of more than 10 years. METHODS: Retrospective observational study. Consecutive patients with PCN between 2005 and 2007 were included...

OBJECTIVE: Percutaneous disc nucleoplasty (PDN) is a minimally invasive technique. A portion of the nucleus tissue is ablated using the Coblation technique. Re-surgery is an important factor for the clinical outcome. However, the rate of subsequent surgery after PDN is still unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency of an additional open surgery after PDN in a retrospective of more than ten years. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective observational study...

BACKGROUND: Percutaneous cervical nucleoplasty (PCN) is an effective treatment for cervical herniated intervertebral disc (C-HIVD). In this retrospective study, we evaluated clinical predictors that affect the successful outcome of PCN. METHODS: Fluoroscopically guided PCN was conducted for C-HIVD by one pain physician. Successful outcome was defined as a combination of greater than 50% pain relief on the numerical rating scale pain score, no increase in analgesics, and no cervical epidural steroid injection during the 3-month follow-up period...

Background: The standard treatment for cervical disc herniation is open discectomy surgery but some of techniques, such as nucleoplasty were applied by neurosurgeons in recent decade. The aim of this study was to compare the postoperation results of open discectomy and nucleoplasty methods in people suffering from single cervical disc herniation. Materials and Methods: In a clinical trial study that performed during 2012-2013, 70 patients who candidate for neck surgery were selected and randomly divided into two groups...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The therapy for low back pain boasts different approaches; one of these is nucleoplasty. We wanted to assess the effectiveness of nucleoplasty both by clinical response both by MR imaging evaluation, including even extrusions larger than one third of the spinal canal. METHODS: Fifty-seven patients were treated with nucleoplasty in our hospital, 11 of these patients accepted both clinical and MRI evaluation after six months from treatment. The clinical evaluation was performed with Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) of pain, scored before and after the procedure...

PURPOSE: To compare the therapeutic efficacy of radiofrequency target disc decompression(TDD) and nucleoplasty for lumbar disc herniation. METHODS: Two hundred sixty patients with lumbar disc herniation were divided into two groups: target disc decompression group (group T, n = 147) and nucleoplasty group (group N, n = 113). Visual analogue scale (VAS) and functional rating index (FRI) were measured at one, three, six, 12, 24, and 60 months after the surgery...

Cervical radiculopathy is characterized by compression of the roots of the nerve. When conservative treatment fails and symptoms persist or increase in severity, surgical treatment is considered. Anterior cervical discectomy with or without fusion is regarded as the standard treatment for cervical disk herniation. Recently, there is an evolving trend in spinal surgery towards less invasive techniques. Nucleoplasty is a minimally invasive technique in which radiofrequency technology is used for percutaneous decompression...

OBJECTIVE: The choice of appropriate treatment of discogenic low back pain (DLBP) frequently is difficult. This study sought to identify the clinical efficacy of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar annuloplasty and nucleoplasty (PELAN) to treat patients with DLBP and to investigate prognostic clinical or radiologic variables. METHODS: Eighty-nine patients with a diagnosis of DLBP who underwent PELAN were included. Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for back pain, Oswestry Disability Index % (ODI%), and modified Macnab criteria were measured at short-term (3-4 weeks) and long-term follow-up period (at least 12 months) to investigate clinical efficacy of PELAN...

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the curative effects and mechanism of radiofrequency ablation nucleoplasty in the treatment of cervical vertigo. METHODS: A total of 27 patients diagnosed with cervical vertigo from January 2012 to October 2014 received treatment of radiofrequency ablation nucleoplasty. The narrow-side vertebral artery diameters were examined by using Philips 1.5-T body dual-gradient MRI system. The haemodynamic parameters were detected by using transcranial Doppler sonography...

PURPOSE: Nucleoplasty is a minimally invasive technique that is considered efficacious in alleviating lumbar disk degenerative low back pain (LBP). The efficacy of nucleoplasty and identified variables that can predict pain relief for nucleoplasty was reported. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between December 2013 and November 2015, 47 nucleoplasty procedures on 47 lumbar disks in 31 consecutive patients were performed. The outcome was evaluated using a visual analog scale (VAS) score...

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the feasibility of percutaneous nucleoplasty procedures at L5/S1 level using cone beam CT (CBCT) and its associated image guidance technology for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation (LDH). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 25 cases (20 men, 5 women) of LDH at L5/S1 levels. CBCT as guidance imaging was chosen after a first unsuccessful fluoroscopy attempt that was related to complex anatomy (n = 15), rapid pathological changes due to degenerative diseases (n = 7) or both (n = 3)...

A degenerative cervical disc is a pain generator for headaches, and headaches can benefit from cervical prolapse surgery. However, as an alternative intervention for open cervical surgery, no study has reported whether headaches can benefit from cervical nucleoplasty.The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of cervical coblation nucleoplasty in the treatment of cervicogenic headaches.In a prospective cohort study performed between December 2013 and August 2015, 20 patients with cervicogenic headaches undergoing cervical nucleoplasty for shoulder-arm pain were recruited into group C, and 20 patients with cervicogenic headaches undergoing lumbar nucleoplasty for low back pain, matched for age and sex, were recruited into group L...

BACKGROUND: Cervical neck pain is often caused by cervical disk pathology and may cause severe symptoms and disability. Surgeons and patients are increasingly aware of postsurgery-related complications. This stimulated the clinical usage of minimally invasive treatments such as percutaneous nucleoplasty (PCN) and pulsed radio frequency (PRF). However, scientific evidence on both treatments is limited. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to evaluate the efficacy of PCN compared to PRF in patients with contained cervical disk herniation...

Most cases of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) occur after some inciting injury. There are a few cases of CRPS after an operation for disc disease. CRPS from a mild herniated intervertebral disc (HIVD) without surgical intervention is even rarer than CRPS after an operation for disc disease.A 22-year-old man was transferred to a pain clinic. He had continuously complained about back and right leg pain. He presented with a skin color change in the right lower leg, intermittent resting tremor, stiffness, and swelling in the right leg...