Long-Term Follow-Up Results of Day Surgery for Lumbar Disc Herniation Using Percutaneous Endoscopic Lumbar Discectomy: A Single-Center Experience of 267 Cases.

Abstract Background: Although numerous studies have shown good clinical results of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD) for hospitalized patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH), there are few articles that report on the day surgery patients undergoing PELD.Methods: Atotal of 267 patients with LDH received PELD during day surgery were followed up for at least 3 years. Relevant data and clinical outcomeswere recorded and assessed. Meanwhile, we compared the clinical effects between patients treated by PELD during day surgery and microendoscopic discectomy (MED) for contemporaneous hospitalized patients with LDH (116 patients).Results: Patients treated by PELD had lower blood loss (10.8 ± 4.1 mL, 71.3 ± 23.3 mL,respectively; P < 0.001) and shorter hospital stay ( 22.7 ± 4.2 hours, 48.1 ± 22.6 hours, respectively; P < 0.001 ) compared with patients treated by MED. The visual analogue scale (VAS) for leg and back pain (VAS-L and VAS-B, respectively) and Oswestry disability index (ODI) decreased significantly after PELD than those before the operation at 3 years postoperative, and the postoperative VAS-B in PELD group was significantly decreased from the MED group ( P = 0.001). The complications rate was 9.4% (25/267) in the PELD group and 12.1% (14/116) in the MED group, without significant difference ( P = 0.471). The 1-year postoperative recurrence rate in PELD group ( 5.2%, 14/267) was much higher than that in MED group ( 0.9%, 1/116) ( P = 0.042). The postoperative lumbar lordosis（LL）(34.0 ±10.3 ), and sacral slope（SS) (27.5 ± 5.6) in PELD group improved significantly compared with the values in MED group (26.9 ± 9.8, 23.6 ± 6.8, respectively; all P < 0.001). The disc-height ratio at 3-year follow-up was ( 85.7 ± 6.4) % of the preoperative disc height in PELD group while ( 81.9 ± 7.0) % in MED group，with significant height loss in MED group ( P = 0.014).Conclusions: Day surgery for LDH undergoing PELD has favorable long-term outcomes.