Full-Endoscopic Lumbar Discectomy for Two Contiguous Level Adolescent Lumbar Disc Herniation

Background: Symptomatic lumbar disc herniation is rarely seen among adolescents. Adolescent lumbar disc herniation (ALDH) accounts for 0.5% to 6.8% of all those treated. Evidently, to our knowledge, no studies have emphasized the operative technique to treat two contiguous level adolescent lumbar disc herniation simultaneously. In this study, we aim to investigate the feasibility and advantages of one-stage full-endoscopic lumbar discectomy（FELD）for two contiguous level ALDH. This is the first paper, to my knowledge, dealing with two contiguous level ALDH simultaneously with one-stage full-endoscopic lumbar discectomy. Methods: Between January 2014 and December 2019, patients received FELD surgery for lumbar disc herniation (LDH) in 2 main minimally invasive spine center of China were selected for screening of this study. Data of 5877 cases were retrospectively analyzed (2780 cases and 3097 cases, respectively). The inclusion criteria were patient under 21-year old, two contiguous level symptomatic lumbar disc herniation received one-stage 2 level PELD surgery. Visual analog scale (VAS) scores and modified Macnab criteria were used to assess the preoperative and postoperative clinical results. Results: 11 patients were enrolled in this study (0.19%,11/5877), 8 patients were male and 3 were female. 9 patients with LDH in the same side underwent single-incision 2 level FELD surgery via transforaminal approach. 2 patients with LDH in different side underwent FELD surgery via combined transforaminal and interlaminar approach. There were no immediate perioperative complications. The visual analog scale (VAS) decreased significantly in both early and late follow-up evaluations and these score demonstrated significant improvement in late follow-up (P <0.01). For the modified MacNab criteria, the final outcome results were excellent in 9 patients (81.8%), good in 1 patients (0.9%), fair in1 patients (0.9%), and the overall success rate was 90.9% . Conclusion: One-stage full-endoscopic lumbar discectomy for 2 level symptomatic ALDH is an effective and less invasive method, which can be considered as an alternative good technique for selected adolescent patients.