Researchers examined 28 consecutive patients with persistent symptoms after nucleoplasty within one year of treatment using prenucleoplasty and postnucleoplasty MRIs. The comparison between the two MRIs failed to show an increase in signal hydration, disc space height or shrinkage of the preoperative disc bulge.
Of the 17 cervical levels treated in the 12 patients, five seemed to show progressive degeneration at treated levels. Of the 17 lumbar procedures done in 16 patients, four seemed to show progressive degeneration and one developed spondylolisthesis. The median Pfirrmann score in both prenucleoplasty and postnucleoplasty was two.
Read the abstract for “Accelerated Degeneration After Failed Cervical and Lumbar Nucleoplasty.”
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