The study examined 54 patients who received microsurgical fragmentectomy between January 2001 and June 2003 for single-level lumbar disc herniation. The researchers found:
• 88.9 percent reported excellent outcomes
• 26 percent reported good outcomes
• Long term back and leg pain improvement was reported in 89.8 percent and 88 percent of the patients who reported back or leg pain initially
• 11.1 percent of the patients needed reoperations on the same level
“Our long-term outcome study shows that a minimally invasive approach to microdiscectomy with removal of the fragment only is an effective way to treat lumbar disc herniation,” concluded the study authors.
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