MONDAY, April 24, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- A new study suggests that individuals suffering from the pain of a herniated lumbar disk may now have a new treatment option -- a minimally invasive procedure called microendoscopic diskectomy (MED).
MED enables doctors to perform the surgery through smaller incisions with less tissue disruption than microscopic diskectomy, which has been the standard surgical treatment for herniated lumbar intervertebral disks.
Expected to be presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, in San Francisco, the study by researchers at the University of Chicago tracked 114 patients who underwent MED for lumbar disk herniations between September 2002 and February 2005.
Most of the procedures were performed on an outpatient basis using general anesthesia. The average surgery time was 109 minutes, and the average hospital stay was just over 10 hours -- shorter than what's usually required after standard open diskectomy.
Of the 114 patients, 87 were followed and assessed at six weeks, 4.5 months, 10.5 months, and 18 months after MED.
The patients showed improvements in low back pain, leg pain, and in physical function.
"In conclusion, minimally invasive MED for lumbar disk herniation is a safe and effective treatment," study co-author Dr. Richard G. Fessler, chief of neurosurgery, said in a prepared statement.
"This new technique provides the benefit of shorter operative time, decreased blood loss, and shorter length of hospital stay. The outcomes for this minimally invasive approach are comparable to published outcomes for standard diskectomy," he added.
More information
The North American Spine Society has more about herniated lumbar disks.
