Treatment of lumbar disc herniation by percutaneous intervertebral foraminoscopic technique

Lumbar intervertebral disc herniation is a common disease that causes chronic low back pain, and those who are not well treated with conservative treatment need surgical treatment. Traditional open surgery is traumatic, with much bleeding, severe postoperative pain, and extensive stripping of muscles and soft tissues in the lumbar back during the operation causes damage, and studies have shown that this kind of soft tissue damage is one of the main reasons for patients’ chronic postoperative low back pain. Percutaneous intervertebral foraminoscopy technology for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation has the characteristics of less trauma, less intraoperative bleeding, less damage to the paravertebral soft tissues, less postoperative pain, and quicker recovery, which has been widely developed in China in recent years. Percutaneous intervertebral foraminoscopy is currently recognized as the most minimally invasive and effective spinal surgery, with a surgical incision of only 0.7 cm, which can treat almost all types of lumbar disc herniation. In recent years, it has been widely carried out in major hospitals in China. Our hospital is one of the earliest hospitals to carry out this technology in Southwest China. A number of doctors went to St. Anna Hospital in Germany, Beijing 301 Hospital and other hospitals to learn the latest technology of intervertebral foramenoscopy, making our hospital’s intervertebral foramenoscopy technology is always in the domestic advanced ranks, and has successfully carried out percutaneous foramenoscopic foramen enlargement molding and nucleus pulposus removal; percutaneous intervertebral foramenoscopic interlaminar approach to the nucleus pulposus removal. Our hospital can treat almost all types of lumbar disc herniation and some lumbar spinal stenosis with the use of intervertebral foraminoscopic technology. Percutaneous interlaminar lumbar disc removal is highly effective, requiring only a percutaneous puncture under local anesthesia to remove the herniated or prolapsed disc-causing compression under direct endoscopic visualization. Under local anesthesia, the patient can feel the whole process of the operation. The operation neither damages the muscles behind the lumbar spine nor destroys the important osteoarticular ligamentous structure of the lumbar spine, so it will not cause obvious lumbosacral pain, and at the same time, it also reduces the patient’s psychological pressure, and since there is no damage to the important structures of the spinal column, it does not have any obvious effect on the lumbar spine stability. There is no need to separate and pull the nerve roots and the dural sac during the operation, so there is no interference with the nerve tissues in the spinal canal, and it will not lead to obvious bleeding and adhesion in the spinal canal. Due to its small surgical trauma, low bleeding and short operation time, the average postoperative bed rest time is only 4-7h, and the patient can get out of bed on the same day after the operation, with an average hospitalization time of 3-5 days, which fully reflects the minimally invasive characteristics of this procedure.