• Hao Chen, Zhen Zhang, Zhenyu Bian, Changju Hou, Maoqiang Li, Liulong Zhu, and Xuepeng Wang.
• Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Affiliated Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
• World Neurosurg. 2023 Oct 1; 178: 707770-77.

BackgroundThoracolumbar disc herniation (TLDH) is a rare disorder with unique characteristics that can result in undesirable surgical outcomes after traditional discectomy. In view of the widespread use of transforaminal endoscopic discectomy for lower lumbar disc herniation, we investigated treatment of TLDH by this procedure. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of transforaminal endoscopic discectomy for treating TLDH and share our technical experience.MethodsWe retrospectively evaluated the clinical data of 19 patients who had undergone transforaminal endoscopic discectomy for TLDH in our institution between April 2018 and July 2021. Operation time, follow-up time, blood loss, postoperative hospital stay, visual analog scale scores for low-back and leg pain, and Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores were evaluated.ResultsThe differences between preoperative and postoperative JOA and visual analog scale scores were significant (P < 0.05). According to the JOA scores, 14 of the 19 patients had excellent improvement, 3 had good improvement, and 2 had fair improvement; thus, the rate of satisfactory improvement was 89.5%.ConclusionsOperation time, blood loss, postoperative hospital stay, and surgical outcomes were favorable. Transforaminal endoscopic discectomy is an ideal surgical procedure for treating TLDH.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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