A Report of Lumbar Disk Herniation Treatment Outcomes: Percutaneous Laser Disk Decompression vs Open Microdiscectomy.

Introduction: Lumbar disk herniation (LDH) is one of the most common pathologies leading to radiculopathy. Open microdiscectomy is the gold standard of LDH treatment. However, minimally invasive techniques such as percutaneous laser disk decompression (PLDD) are gaining growing attention. In this study, we retrospectively reviewed the clinical outcomes of patients who underwent PLDD and compared them with those of a group of patients who underwent open microdiscectomy. Methods: Our report included patients diagnosed with protruded LDH with severe refractory pain for at least 6 to 8 weeks who underwent the interventions. Baseline outcome parameters were recorded before the procedures, and questionnaires were completed at two follow-up sessions. Pain intensity was measured using the visual analog scale (VAS). Additionally, patients were asked to complete the 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36) to report their quality of life. Finally, we used the Oswestry disability index (ODI) to obtain information about patients' daily functional status. Results: A total of 165 patients were enrolled in the study. At the final follow-up, there was no statistically significant difference in the VAS level between the groups. However, the differences between the two groups regarding the SF-36 and ODI were statistically significant. Conclusion: Our study report showed that both methods significantly improved the clinical outcomes of the patients with protruded disk herniation.