Kronik Bel Ağrısına Yönelik Trans-Sakral Epiduroskopik Lazer Dekompresyon Uygulanan Olgularda Yaşam Kalitesinin Retrospektif Olarak Değerlendirilmesi

Abstract

Low back pain is a common, important health problem adults experience at least once in their lifetime that effects quality of life, causes labor loss and has high costs of diagnosis and treatment. Trans- sacral epiduroscopic laser decompression (SELD) is a minimal invasive technique that can be applied to many patient’s lumbar disc herniation. SELD has advantages like short operation time, decreased risk related to general anesthesia, availability of communication with the patient throughout the procedure (decreases accidental nerve damage risk) and short healing time as well as treating underlying pathology directly. Not only the source of pain can be determined via the epiduroscope treatment can be done in diagnosis process. It is applied to patients with chronic low back pain and failed back surgery syndrome routinely in Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine Algology department. Comparison of quality of life before and after Trans-Sacral Epiduroscopic Laser Decompression procedure is the primary goal of our study. For this purpose, 89 patients included in study and their before and six-monthsafter the treatment SF-36 (Short Form-36) Questionnaire scores evaluated. Overall, after-epiduroscopy-SF-36 scores are statistically higher in all sub variables of the questionnaire. These sub variables are general health perception, physical functioning, physical role limitation, energy/vitality, mental health, emotional role limitation, pain and social functioning. The physical role limitation had the biggest increment as a parameter. In conclusion, SELD not only is an effective treatment for chronic lower back pain, but also improves the quality of life in patients.