Abducens nerve palsy after lumbar spinal fusion surgery with inadvertent dural tearing.

Abducens nerve palsy associated with spinal surgery is extremely rare. We report an extremely rare case of abducens nerve palsy after lumbar spinal fusion surgery with inadvertent dural tearing, which resolved spontaneously and completely. A 61-year-old previous healthy man presented with chronic lower back pain of 6 weeks duration and 2 weeks history of bilateral leg pain.

Targeted percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic diskectomy in 295 patients: comparison with results of microscopic diskectomy.

Background: The aim of this study is to compare the clinical outcomes and complications after targeted PTED and conventional microscopic diskectomy for removing 1-level unilateral LDH and to evaluate the efficacy of PTED for the treatment of LDH.

Methods: The authors retrospectively examined 915 consecutive patients who underwent PTED (group A, 301 patients) and microscopic diskectomy (group B, 614 patients) for 1-level unilateral LDH. Patients who were treated with a diskectomy in the period from July 2003 to December 2004 were evaluated by telephone interview and institute visit.