Laser disc surgery (PLDD) is also known as percutaneous laser disc decompression is one of the most advanced techniques developed to deal with prolapsed lumbar discs. It is perfmormed under local anaesthetic as a day case procedure at The Harley street hospital.
Not all Spine Surgery Needs to be Performed with a Knife.
In order to improve the effectiveness and safety of surgical treatment, various techniques called minimally-invasive have been developed.
The common objective of all of them is to reduce surgical complications and postoperative pain, with a speedy recovery of the patient. In addition, other benefits are pointed out, such as the reduction of blood loss during the intervention, the reduction of hospital stay and the administration of analgesics, the making of smaller incisions, as well as the preservation of the posterior motility of the segments and the paraspinal muscles. The main advantage of minimally invasive techniques are that they preserve the architecture of the spine better, with the least tissue damage and with the lowest associated risk. There are different types of minimally invasive approaches.
PLDD (percutaneous laser disc decompression) is a medical procedure which is aimed for the treatment of small-medium size hernias of the intervertebral disc using laser energy. The theoretical objective is to reduce the intradiscal pressure in the nucleus pulposus in such a way that the herniated fragment can redirect to the interior of the disc, reducing compression of the nerve root, which reduces pain, and therefore improves the patient’s morbidity and quality of life.
Therefore, this approach consists in eliminating the nucleus pulposus by applying laser energy in the center of the intervertebral disc that produces a vaporization of its aqueous content. Being a minimally invasive technique, it is expected that the damage in the tissues (muscles, bones, ligaments and nerves) is the least possible.
It is a procedure that can be an option for different states of disc degeneration and although it can be applied in all regions of the spine, it is applied with higher frequency in lumbar disc hernias. This is a safe procedure
At Harley Street Hospital, we have highly qualified surgeons who perform PLDD. Book a consultation to get a specialist´s opinion.