About 80% of adults suffer from low back or leg pain during their lifetime1. In primary care, 4% of patients with this condition have a lumbar disk herniation2, with L5 and S1 nerve roots involved in approximately 95% of cases3-4. However the herniated portion of the disk tends to regress with time, after conservative therapy, with partial or complete resolution in two thirds of cases after 11 months5. Oxygen-ozone(O2-O3) discolysis is a good alternative to surgical treatment for lumbar disk herniation for patients failing to...

We evaluated 257 patients underwent to chemiodiscolysis in the period between June2011 and September 2014 (163 men, 94 women ;age range 22 92years), (L3-L4, 12 patients; L4-L5, 23 patients; L5-S1, 222 patients) after preliminary clinical evaluation, performed by one experienced neuroradiologist with 35 years experience. The procedures were performed by two neuroradiologists(respectively 35 and 5 years experience) . Prospective trial was approved by the Medical Ethical Committee of our institution. All participants gave written informed consent prior to enrollment. Inclusion criteria comprised lumbar disk pathologies...

The success rate at sixth month after treatments was statistically significant (χ2=31,31, P<.001) in 106 patients( Responders 41,24% with extrusions) compared with 9 patients( Non responders 3,5% with the same discovertebral pathology)(95% CI: 64,1%, 84,4%) (Table 1). Also in 89(Responders 34,6%) patients with protrusions the success rate at sixth month was statistically significant(χ2=25,43, P<.001) compared with 5 patients( Non responders 1,9% with the same discovertebral pathology)(95% CI: 73,1%, 88,4%) (Table 1) . Only in the presence of bulging disk, the success rate was no statistically...

Because ozone is an unstable form of oxygen that, in water, reacts with organic molecules containing double or triple bonds causing an oxide reduction called ozonolysis14, intradiscal O2-O3 mixture injection produces a chemodiscolysis of nucleus pulposus proteoglycans and dehydration followed, finally, by disk shrinkage and direct reduction of root compression15-16. Another reason for using medical ozone to treat disk herniation is its analgesic and antiinflammatory effects17-18-19. The effect of ozone on chemical radiculitis can also explain the clinical effectiveness of intraforaminal O2-O3 injection without intradiscal...

1. Andersson GBJ. The epidemiology of spinal disorders. In: Frymoyer JW, ed. The adult spine: principles and practice, 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven, 1997: 93–141. 2. Richard A. Deyo, M.D., M.P.H., and James N. Weinstein, D.O. N Engl J Med 2001; 344:363-370 February 1, 2001 3. Deyo RA. Early diagnostic evaluation of low back pain. J Gen Intern Med 1986;1:328-38. 4. Deyo RA,Rainville J, Kent DL.What can the history and physical examination tell us about low back pain?JAMA 1992;268:760-5. 5. Bozzao A, Gallucci M, Masciocchi C,...