Disc rupture is a condition which may occur anywhere throughout the spine. The most common occurrence is in the lumbar spine or the cervical spine. A disc rupture may cause radiculopathy, that is nerve root irritation, with pain going down the arm or leg. this may be found in association with numbness or weakness.

The treatment for disc rupture may include physical therapy, steroid or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, or surgery. The "gold standard" of treatment for this condition is the microdiscectomy. This procedure is a minimally-invasive surgery where a one inch incision is made over the involved area and the muscle is pulled aside. A small amount of bone is removed and the nerves are visualized and protected. The ruptured part of the disc is removed and the incision is closed. Patients may return home the same or next day in most cases. All other treatments are compared to microdiscectomy, which has a 90-95% success rate.

We perform, in selected patients, endoscopic discectomy (MED) and arthroscopic discectomy. These techniques still involve a small skin incision but utilize endoscopic techniques to visualize the nerves. We have performed plasma-wand removal of disc material. This highly advanced techniques utilizes a specially-designed wand to generate a plasma field. This field generates no heat (unlike lasers) and removes disc material expeditiously. For further information on these procedures, see the book Operative Spine Surgery by William C. Welch, George B. Jacobs and Roger P. Jackson.

Finally, this center is a world-leader in the treatment of painful disc conditions using the IDET (intradiscal electrothermy) procedure. This intradiscal electrothermy technique does not require a skin incision and is performed completely percutaneoulsy through a tiny needle insertion. A small catheter is inserted into the disc and the tip of the catheter is heated. This caused disc shrinkage and deadens the nerve endings in the disc. This is an outpatient procedure performed in the awake (sedated) patient. All patients go home the same day and may return to their usual level of function the following day.