Objective: We aimed to compare the efficacy of unilateral biportal endoscopic (UBE) surgery and traditional open surgery in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation (LDH). The complications and learning curve of UBE surgery are also discussed.
Methods: Clinical data from 66 patients with single-level LDH admitted to Dezhou Hospital, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University in China from May 2020 to December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into the UBE surgery group and the traditional open surgery group according to patient choice. Intraoperative bleeding; surgery duration; length of hospital stay; preoperative visual analogue scale (VAS); VAS score 1 week after surgery, 1 month after surgery, 3 months after surgery and 6 months after surgery; early complications; chronic low back pain 1 year after surgery; Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) before surgery and 6 months after surgery were compared between the 2 groups.
Results: Postoperative VAS and ODI scores in the 2 groups were significantly lower than before surgery (P < .05). There were significant differences in intraoperative bleeding, duration of surgery, length of hospital stay, VAS score 1 week after operation and 1 month after operation, postoperative white blood cells (WBCs), early complications and long-term chronic low back pain in the 2 groups (P < .05). There was no significant difference in VAS score 3 or 6 months after surgery or ODI score 6 months after surgery between the 2 groups (P > .05).
Conclusion: Both UBE and traditional open surgery are effective in the treatment of LDH. Early pain relief was significantly better in the UBE surgery group than the traditional open surgery group, and the UBE group had a lower incidence of long-term chronic low back pain than the traditional open surgery group. However, but the number of early complications in the UBE group was higher than in the traditional open surgery group.