Lumbar percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy: a retrospective survey on the first 172 adult patients treated in Denmark

Abstract Purpose To evaluate patient demographics, surgery characteristics, and patient-reported clinical outcomes related to the implementation of lumbar PTED in Denmark by surgeons novice to the PTED technique. Methods All adult patients treated with a lumbar PTED from our first surgery in October 2020 to December 2021 were included. Data was generated by journal audit and telephone interview. Results A total of 172 adult patients underwent lumbar PTED. Surgery duration was a median of 45.0 (35.0–60.0) minutes and patients were discharged a median of 0 (0–1.0) days after. Per operatively one procedure was converted to open microdiscectomy due to profuse bleeding. Post operatively one patient complained of persistent headache (suggestive of a dural tear), two patients developed new L5 paresthesia, and three patients had a newly developed dorsal flexion paresis (suggestive of a root lesion). Sixteen patients did not complete follow-up and 24 (14.0%) underwent reoperation of which 54.2% were due to residual disk material. Among the remaining 132 patients, lower back and leg pain decreased from 7.0 (5.0–8.5) to 2.5 (1.0–4.5) and from 8.0 (6.0–9.1) to 2.0 (0–3.6) at follow-up, respectively ( p < 0.001). Additionally, 93.4% returned to work and 78.8% used less analgesics. Post hoc analysis comparing the early half of cases with the latter half did not find any significant change in surgery time, complication and reoperation rates, nor in pain relief, return to work, or analgesia use. Conclusion Clinical improvements after lumbar PTED performed by surgeons novel to the technique are satisfactory, although the reoperation rate is high, severe complications may occur, and the learning curve can be longer than expected.