Short-term follow-up: micro-invasive therapy of the cervical herniated disk by percutaneous nucleotomy.

Aim: The purpose of this article is to present the clinical results of percutaneous nucleotomy treatment on patients with cervical disk herniation. Methods: Patients with long-term chronic pain due to either cervical prolapse or protrusion were recruited for cervical nucleotomy. The surgical procedures were performed between mid-2008 and the beginning of 2009. The purpose of the surgeries was to relieve radicular irritation and reduce the chronic, high level of pain by micro-technically withdrawing herniated nucleus pulposus tissue. Results: After the percutaneous nucleotomy, the patients were hospitalized for an average of 3 to 4 days. In all complete documented cases (57.5%) the pain was substantially reduced. Conclusion: Cervical percutaneous nucleotomy is a promising alternative to traditional open disk surgery or to chemonucleolysis for herniated disks of the cervical spine.