Keywords:
Interventional non-vascular, Musculoskeletal spine, Neuroradiology spine, Fluoroscopy, Percutaneous, MR, Ablation procedures, Motility, Hernia
Authors:
P. Nikolopoulos, P. Maniatis, A. P. Giannila, A. D. Kelekis, J. Papailiou, C. Triantopoulou; Athens/GR
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2012/C-2358
Results
Nucleoplasty was performed successfully in all cases,
on an outpatient basis.
All patients were monitored post-procedurally for 12 hours and then discharged with instructions not to perform lifting,
bending or stooping.
One week after the procedure,
patients were permitted to return to light work while nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and muscle relaxants were prescribed.
There were no complications associated with the procedure during follow-up period except from two patients reporting soreness at the needle insertion site,
which resolved within 10 days.
Significant amelioration of symptoms was seen in all patients in the immediate post-procedural period.
Before the procedure,
the mean value of VAS was 8,2±0,2 in low back and leg pain while the 6-month value was 2,90 ±0,2 and the 12-month value was 3,38 ±0,2.
The improvement rates of VAS were 64.6% and 58.7% in 6 and 12 months respectively.
Follow up MRI post procedurally revealed radiologic findings in correlation to the symptomatic improvement in all patients (Fig 8).