Short-term follow-up: micro-invasive therapy of the cervical herniated disk by percutaneous nucleotomy.

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the clinical results of percutaneous nucleotomy treatment on patients with cervical disk herniation. Patients with long-term chronic pain due to either cervical prolapse or protrusion were recruited for cervical nucleotomy. The surgical procedures were performed between mid-2008 and the beginning of 2009. The purpose of the surgeries was to relieve radicular irritation and reduce the chronic, high level of pain by micro-technically withdrawing herniated nucleus pulposus tissue. After the percutaneous nucleotomy, the patients were hospitalized for an average of 3 to 4 days. In all complete documented cases (57.5%) the pain was substantially reduced. Cervical percutaneous nucleotomy is a promising alternative to traditional open disk surgery or to chemonucleolysis for herniated disks of the cervical spine.