Surgical outcomes of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy in obese adolescents with lumbar disc herniation

In recent years, with improved living standards, adolescent obesity has been increasingly studied. The incidence of lumbar disc herniation (LDH) in obese adolescents is increasing yearly. No clinical studies have reported the use of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD) in obese adolescent lumbar disc herniation (ALDH) patients. This study evaluated the preliminary surgical outcomes of PELD in obese ALDH patients. Fifty-one ALDH patients underwent single-level PELD surgery between January 2014 and January 2020. Patients were divided into an obese group and a normal group. Patient characteristics and surgical variables were compared between the two groups. The VAS, ODI, and SF-36 scales were used preoperatively and postoperatively to evaluate the clinical efficacy. In this study, 19 patients were included in the obese group, and 28 were included in the normal group. There was no significant difference in age, sex, duration of low back pain, duration of leg pain, or operative level between the obese and normal groups preoperatively. The obese group had a longer operative time (OT) (101.9 ± 9.0 min vs. 84.3 ± 11.0 min, P < 0.001), more fluoroscopy exposures (41.0 ± 5.8 vs. 31.6 ± 7.0, P < 0.001) and a longer time to ambulation (29.9 ± 4.0 vs. 25.0 ± 2.9, p < 0.001) than the normal group. The groups did not significantly differ in complications. The VAS score for back and leg pain and the ODI and SF-36 score for functional status improved significantly postoperatively. The PELD procedure is a safe and feasible method for treating LDH in obese adolescents. Obese ALDH patients require a longer OT, more fluoroscopy exposures and a longer time to get out of bed than normal ALDH patients. However, PELD yields similar clinical outcomes in obese and normal ALDH patients.