ReviewEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2026
Comparing unilateral biportal endoscopic discectomy versus percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy for single-level lumbar disc herniation: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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9 authors.
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Abstract
purposeLumbar disc herniation (LDH), a prevalent cause of pain and disability specifically in adults, is treated with minimally invasive techniques like Percutaneous Endoscopic Lumbar Discectomy (PELD) and Unilateral Biportal Endoscopic Discectomy (UBED). The meta-analysis aims to compare the efficacy and procedural efficiency of UBED and PELD.
methodsPubMed, Cochrane Central, and ScienceDirect were searched till May 2025. Risk ratios (RRs) and mean differences (MDs) were pooled under the random effects model using the Review Manager software version 5.4.1. Quality assessment was performed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Subgroup analysis was performed based on PELD subtypes: percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy (PTED) and percutaneous endoscopic interlaminar discectomy (PEID).
resultsTwenty-three studies, pooling 2,271 patients, were included in this meta-analysis. UBED was associated with significantly increased procedural duration (MD = 12.91; 95%CI: [7.71,18.12]; p < 0.00001) and hospitalization (MD = 1.21; 95%CI: [0.44, 1.97]; p = 0.002) though it decreased the LDH recurrence (RR = 0.31; 95%CI: [0.14, 0.68]; p = 0.003) when compared to PELD. PTED was the only technique associated with favourable hospitalization duration and Visual analog scale (VAS) back score as UBED increased these endpoints in the subgroup analysis (MD = 1.54; 95%CI: [0.38, 2.70]; p = 0.009) and (MD = 0.31; 95%CI: [0.08, 0.54]; p = 0.009), respectively. PEID was the only technique associated with favourable ODI scores, as UBED increased this endpoint in subgroup analysis (MD = 1.31; 95% CI: [0.12, 2.49]; p = 0.03). Additionally, PEID demonstrated comparable efficacy to UBED in terms of LDH recurrence (RR = 0.58; 95% CI: [0.20, 1.65]; p = 0.31).
conclusionUBED may have longer operative time and hospital stay, but may show fewer LDH recurrences than PELD. PTED may show favourable hospitalization duration and VAS back scores, while PEID may show favourable ODI scores and similar recurrence rates to UBED.
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