Objective

The purpose of this research was to investigate the outcomes between Unilateral Biportal Endoscopic Discectomy (UBE) and Percutaneous Endoscopic Lumbar Discectomy (PELD) for the single L4/5 level lumbar disc herniation (sLDH).

Methods

From January 2018 to January 2021, a total of 40 patients with sLDH were retrospectively analyzed in this study. All the patients had received spinal surgeries in Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University and Affiliated Nantong Hospital 3 of Nantong University. Among them, 20 patients were treated with PELD (PELD group), and 20 patients were treated with UBE discectomy (UBE group). Postoperative length of hospital stay, estimated blood loss, operation time and clinical complications of the patients were compared between the two groups. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) were measured before surgeries and 3 days, 1 month and 6 months after surgeries.

Results

Compared to the UBE group, the PELD group had obviously less intraoperative blood loss, shorter operative time, and shorter hospital stay. The differences in the rate of complications were no statistically significant between the two groups. The VAS score and ODI score of the two groups had a great reduction after operation. In addition, both the two groups had satisfactory clinical outcome, the VAS score and ODI of the PELD group decreased more obviously.

Conclusion

The UBE for sLDH yielded similar clinical outcomes to PELD as minimally invasive surgeries, however, PELD is superior to UBE in terms of intraoperative blood loss, operative time, postoperative hospitalization and short-term postoperative pain relief.