Mechanical Percutaneous Nucleotomy
MPLN – Mechanical percutaneous nucleotomy- Subproject 11
Backpain is considered to be the number one complaint of patients in Europe. 90% of all Germans suffer from backpain at least once in their life time. Vertebral disc protrusions or prolases are often the cause of such pain, causing nerve root irritation in the cervial and lumbar spine. For the afflicted patients this often means severe back pain and sometimes even substantial impairment of the patients’ range of motion. One sided overburdening can result in degenerative disc disease even in younger patients. Every year 180,000 people are afflicted in Germany alone; half of whom (up to 80,000) have to be operated on. Spinal interventions in the open high-field MRI present a new option in the treatment of these patients, concerning the minimizing of risk and maximizing therapeutic success. .
The study group Open High-Field MRI is addressing these therapeutic issues with three current research projects. Apart from diagnostics and interventional methods which have been implemented in clinical routine, special treatment methods for spinal diseases are currently being developed.
In MR-guided mechanical percutaneous nucleotomy, protruded disc tissue is removed with very small tenaculi. Under constant realtime MR-monitoring, the afflicted disc is punctured. To relieve any anatomic structure afflicted by the protruded disc tissue, the prolapsed discal portion is removed from the dorsal part of the disc. About 2 Grams of discal tissue are to be removed in this manner. Herein, constant image control is vital. A certain patient collective can profit from the minimal invasive approach of mechanical percutaneous nucleotomy if strict indications and treatment criteria are respected.
Felix Güttler
Jens Rump
Christian Seebauer
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