Comparison of Surgical Invasiveness Between Microdiscectomy and 3 Different Endoscopic Discectomy Techniques for Lumbar Disc Herniation.

Objective: Muscle injury is inevitable during surgical exposure of the spine. This study compared paraspinal muscle injury after 4 surgical techniques: microdiscectomy (MD), percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD), percutaneous endoscopic interlaminar discectomy (PEID), unilateral biportal endoscopic discectomy (UBED).

Methods: Eighty patients who underwent MD, PELD, PEID, and UBED were prospectively observed.