Endospine Surgery Complications in Lumbar Herniated Disc

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Spine surgery is entering a new era of evolution, with minimally invasive spine surgery to decompress the neural structures without affecting the stability of the spine. However, complications may occur. The surgeon must have these in mind in order to prevent them. We report on the main intraoperative and postoperative complications of endospine surgery of lumbar disc herniation. METHODS: It was a retrospective study spread over 22 years (January 1993 - December 2015) concerning 10,433 patients who underwent treatment for lumbar disc herniation at the Endospine Surgery Center Bordeaux France. Among them 1189 patients had 1 intraoperative or post-operative complication. RESULTS: This study comprised 10,433 patients, among whom 1189 had various complications, which represented 11.39%. The average age of this sample was 46 years, and the eldest were 91 years. A male predominance was noted in 6502 of cases with a sex ratio of 6502/3931 = 1.65. The complications were recurrences (6.77%) followed by dural tears (1.91%), facet resection (1.14%), two-level approach instead of one (1.09%), radicular lesion (0.17%) that remained with motor or pain symptoms, wrong level and infections such as spondylodiscitis and wound infection, respectively (0.08%) each, deep vein thrombosis (0.04%), and gauze (0.03%). CONCLUSIONS: Twenty-two years of follow-up on endospine treatment for lumbar disc herniation showed a low complication rate. An early and efficient management will nevertheless allow a good outcome in the majority of patients operated.