A. Hadjipavlou et al., CHEMONUCLEOLYSIS IN THE TREATMENT OF THE LUMBAR DISC CAUSED BY COMPRESSION AND ROTATION, International orthopaedics, 17(3), 1993, pp. 148-153
One hundred patients who meet McCulloch's indicators for treatment of
lumbar disc herniation by chemonucleolysis were entered in this study.
Chemonucleolysis in the patients suffering from sciatica secondary to
a compression injury, especially with clinical and radiographic evide
nce of nerve root compression at a single level, can be expected to at
tain good to excellent results. Chemonucleolysis is far less efficacio
us in patients suffering from either torsional injury or multiple leve
l abnormality, especially in the absence of neurological deficit. Meti
culous attention to patient selection will yield optimal results. The
result was excellent or very good in 60% of patients, while in 40% the
procedure failed. The rate of success at the L.5/S.1 level was 70%, a
t the L. 415 level it was 63% and 37% were successful when multiple le
vels were treated