Posterior Endoscope-Assisted Diskectomy Is an Effective Technique for Cervical Soft Disk Herniation.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinicoradiologic conditions of patients with a herniated cervical disk who were treated with percutaneous endoscope-assisted cervical diskectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical data of 27 patients (16 men and 11 women; mean age 40.9 years) who were operated on with the posterior endoscope-assisted cervical diskectomy method were reviewed retrospectively. The mean follow-up was 35.1 months, and the patients were assessed with combined preoperative and postoperative visual analog scale (VAS), Prolo Functional Economic Outcome Rating scale, MacNab scale, and clinical imaging. RESULTS: The mean preoperative VAS level was 8.6 (range 7-10), and mean Prolo score was 2.5 (range 2-5). A postoperative assessment performed 1 week postsurgery found a mean VAS level of 2.1 (range 0-4). At the final examination, the mean VAS level was 0.81 (range 0-3), and the mean Prolo score was 4.5 (range 3-5). The final MacNab scale scores were 62.9%, excellent; 25.9%, good; 7.4%, moderate; and 3.7%, poor. CONCLUSION: Percutaneous endoscope-assisted cervical diskectomy is a suitable and effective treatment method for soft cervical disk herniation.