Background:. With the development of modern microspinal surgical techniques, Minimally invasive techniques have revolutionized the management of pathologic conditions of the spine such as lumbar disc prolapse
Objective: The aim of this study is to compare the clinical and radiological outcome of the open limited lumbar discectomy and microdiscectomy for a single level lumbar disc prolapse at the Neurosurgical Department of Benha University.
Patients and methods: This is a retrospective study of Forty-eight consecutive patients who underwent a discectomy for a single level lumbar disc herniation from 2006 to 2012 (22 patients with microdiscectomy and 26 patients with open limited surgery).
Results: We have found comparable results regarding the improvement of the preoperative low back pain, leg pain, the occurance of postoperative epidural scarring, the incidence of postoperative infection and the incidence of recurrence or the need for later spinal arthrodesis at the same level. In the microdiscectomy group, we noticed the occurance of less intraoperative blood loss, less hospital stay but this was accompanied by more operative time and accordingly more anesthetic requirement.
Conclusion: Microdiscectomy is an alternative to the open limited discectomy. Both groups show significant and long-lasting pain relief and good to excellent results regarding health-related quality of life. We observed less blood loss and less hospital stay in the microdiscectomy group and slightly but not statistically significant better clinical results in the Microdiscectomy group when compared to the open limited discectomy group.