Rongyi Zhang,1,* Shi Chen,2,* Liuhu Han,1,3 Bingbing Xu,1 Yuyu Guo,1 Likui Wang1 

1Department of Pain Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of AnHui Medical University, HeFei, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pain Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Union Shenzhen Hospital, ShenZhen, People’s Republic of China; 3Anhui Medical University, HeFei, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Likui Wang, Department of Pain Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of AnHui Medical University, Shushan District, Hefei City, Anhui Province, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 13705690702, Email wlk9560@163.com

Introduction: Coblation nucleoplasty is a minimally invasive procedure developed for the treatment of symptomatic disc herniation.
Methods: We evaluated 118 cases of cervical and lumbar intervertebral discs treated with coblation nucleoplasty. The clinical results were assessed using the visual analogue scale (VAS), modified MacNab criteria, and efficacy. Complications and the re-surgery rate were also evaluated. The procedure was carried out under CT guidance, and the patients were followed up for 1 day, 1 month, 6 months, and 5 years postoperative.
Results: At the 5-year follow-up, the VAS score in the cervical and lumbar groups significantly decreased from 6.20 to 2.43 and 6.11 to 3.29, respectively. While MacNab scores were indistinguishable at the 6-month follow-up, they differed significantly between the cervical (58.2%) and lumbar (34.9%) groups at the 5-year follow-up. At the 5-year follow-up, 6 patients in the cervical group and 11 in the lumbar group underwent conventional operation. The efficacy of coblation nucleoplasty at the 5-year follow-up was higher in cervical group (81.82%) compared with lumbar group (61.90%).
Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that coblation nucleoplasty is a safe and effective treatment option for patients with cervical and lumbar disc herniation. The long-term benefits of this procedure were more pronounced in patients with cervical disc herniation.
Clinical Trial Registration: The trial was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (ChiCTR2400089145).

Keywords: coblation nucleoplasty, lumbar disc herniation, cervical disc herniation, pain