Percutaneous endoscopic cervical discectomy: 16 years of experience and literature review

the advancement of the percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (pecd) and its clinical success have led to similar minimally invasive approaches to the cervical spine. the goal of pecd is the decompression of the cervical nerve root through a direct endoscopic visualization, removing the herniated mass and shrinking the nucleous pulposus with the use of microforceps and holmium: yttrium-aluminum-garnet (ho:yag) laser. the senior author have performed pecd with cervical laser assisted endoscopy since 1993. the pecd is indicate to patients with constrained or unconstrained soft herniated cervical disc, positive provocative test, and no bony spur larger than 2 mm, regardless of the herniation size. the authors described the surgical technique of pecd and report their 16 years of experience in the endoscopic treatment of the herniated cervical disc.