Lumbar disk herniation: How far should efforts go to minimally invasive procedure?

BACKGROUND: Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) of lumbar disk herniation allows avoiding less of a mess in crossing structures, reducing muscular and cutaneous scarring, postoperative pain, lengthy recovery times, and the rate of infection. The aim of this study is to explain our experience in MIS of disc herniation. We compare the outcome of three different surgical techniques used for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 1147 patients have been operated from July 2008 to December 2015 for lumbar disk herniation by posterior endoscopic approach. Three hundred and seventy-nine patients underwent discectomy and herniectomy (DH), 557 patients have been operated by herniectomy (H), and 211 patients underwent only bone decompression (BD). RESULTS: The results show 80.10%, 82.06%, and 84.02% excellent outcome, respectively, in BD, DH, and BD techniques. CONCLUSION: Analysis of the data demonstrates that the results obtained are equivalent and comparable in different used techniques for the treatment of disc herniation, we do not need to perform discectomy in all cases in a systematic way.