Spinal Disc disease is a health problem that generally affects the population after the second decade of life, in their full working capacity. It is estimated that 60-70% of the population at any time of life has suffered from low back pain and 20% of patients with a herniated disc may require surgery.
The problems derived from disc degeneration, associated with predisposing factors such as standing, work activity and stress of the modern era, are responsible for the onset of this disease.
In most cases, back discomfort can be remedied by conservative therapies such as injections, electrotherapy, massage or medication. However, if these measures are not enough, doctors have to eliminate the cause permanently by using some form of invasive procedures.
In these circumstances, minimally invasive treatments are the first line approach, and percutaneous laser decompression has been designed specifically for this purpose.
Especially in cases of cervical, thoracic and lumbar disc hernias, the laser percutaneous disc decompression method (PLDD) achieves very good results.
It is a careful minimally invasive procedure and very appropriate for elimination or notable reduction of discomfort. Often, this method is suitable for patients with spinal disorders in which a microsurgical intervention is not indicated.
The advantages of this type of surgery over conventional surgery are that general anaesthesia is avoided, the hospital stay is brief, absence of postoperative epidural scar, conservation of spinal stability and that there is always the option of performing conventional open surgery of the disc in the event of failure of the percutaneous laser decompression of the herniated disc. In addition, it has less morbidity (less than 1% compared to conventional surgery at 7.8%), but only a small percentage of patients with herniated discs require open surgery.