Table 1.
Baseline demographics of the patients and the surgeons performing PTED
| Characteristic | PTED |
Microdiscectomy | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior surgeon | LC surgeon 1 | LC surgeon 2 | LC surgeon 3 | ||
| Tenure (yr) | 10 | 10 | 11 | 8 | |
| Amount of PTEDs performed (n) | > 200 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Expected learning curve (n) | - | 20 | 20 | 25 | |
| No. of patients | 143 | 86 | 32 | 43 | 309 |
| Age (yr) | 45.5 ± 12.6 | 45.4 ± 11.8 | 45.6 ± 12.5 | 45.6 ± 10.8 | 45.7 ± 11.3 |
| Male sex | 76 (53.1) | 50 (58.1) | 16 (50.0) | 28 (65.1) | 180 (58.3) |
| Current smoker | 31 (21.7) | 27 (31.4) | 7 (21.9) | 12 (27.9) | 91 (29.5) |
| Body mass index (kg/m2) | 26.4 ± 3.7 | 26.6 ± 4.7 | 26.2 ± 3.7 | 28.3 ± 6.4 | 26.8 ± 5.4 |
| Paid employment | 118 (82.5) | 73 (84.9) | 28 (87.5) | 34 (79.1) | 242 (78.6) |
| Duration of sciatica (mo) | 4.2 ± 3.0 | 4.4 ± 3.1 | 4.3 ± 3.1 | 4.5 ± 3.2 | 4.2 ± 2.9 |
| Radiating pain in the right leg | 66 (46.2) | 46 (53.5) | 16 (50.0) | 20 (46.5) | 155 (50.2) |
| Level of disk herniation causing sciatica | |||||
| L2–3 | 1 (0.7) | 1 (1.2) | 0 | 0 | 7 (2.3) |
| L3–4 | 10 (7.0) | 13 (15.1) | 1 (3.1) | 2 (4.7) | 13 (4.2) |
| L4–5 | 55 (38.5) | 37 (43.0) | 16 (50.0) | 21 (48.8) | 137 (44.3) |
| L5–6 | 1 (0.7) | 0 | 1 (3.1) | 0 | 2 (0.6) |
| L5–S1 | 76 (53.1) | 35 (40.7) | 14 (43.8) | 20 (46.5) | 148 (47.9) |
| L6–S1 | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 2 (0.6) |
| Score on the VSA of pain | |||||
| Leg pain | 68.7 ± 20.4 | 70.4 ± 22.1 | 73.0 ± 14.4 | 66.4 ± 20.9 | 69.9 ± 20.6 |
| Back pain | 50.5 ± 27.3 | 49.7 ± 30.4 | 54.5 ± 24.4 | 55.0 ± 24.7 | 45.4 ± 29.7 |
| Oswestry Disability Index | 45.5 ± 16.7 | 45.0 ± 15.9 | 45.1 ± 15.9 | 42.0 ± 17.2 | 45.5 ± 17.1 |
| Score on the VSA of general health | 45.9 ± 20.3 | 48.2 ± 21.6 | 53.8 ± 22.8 | 52.2 ± 22.9 | 48.8 ± 21.9 |
| SF-36 physical component summary | 30.0 ± 7.7 | 30.8 ± 6.6 | 29.8 ± 7.0 | 32.0 ± 9.0 | 29.6 ± 7.7 |
| SF-36 mental component summary | 47.2 ± 10.9 | 46.8 ± 11.1 | 50.4 ± 10.5 | 47.6 ± 11.8 | 46.5 ± 11.3 |
| Preference for PTED (%) | 86.0 | 77.9 | 84.4 | 48.4 | 77.9 |
Values are presented as mean±standard deviation unless otherwise indicated.
PTED, percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy; LC, learning curve; ODI, Oswestry Disability Index; VAS, visual analogue scale; OoL, quality of life; SF-36, 36-item Short Form Health Survey.
One patient in the microdiscectomy group had missing scores on the ODI, VAS for QoL and back pain, and SF-36 at baseline.