ROOT COMPRESSION TREATMENT WITH OZONE THERAPY UNDER TOMOGRAPHIC NAVIGATION IN 345 CASES

I.A. Pacheco-Cárdenas¹  and G. Martínez-Sánchez^2*

¹Traumatologist and orthopaedist doctor, Professional Clinical Medical Centre, Caracas, Venezuela;
²Scientific advisor, Freelance, Italy

Corresponding author:
Iván Alexis Pacheco-Cárdenas, MD
Traumatologist and orthopaedist doctor,
Professional Clinical Medical Centre,
Caracas, Venezuela
e-mail: Ivapache14@hotmail.com

Received: 14 April 2024 Accepted: 18 May 2024

ISSN 2975-044X (online) ISSN 2038-4106 (print) Copyright © by BIOLIFE 2024 This publication and/or article is for individual use only and may not be further reproduced without written permission from the copyright holder. Unauthorized reproduction may result in financial and other penalties. Disclosure: All authors report no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

ABSTRACT

                The objective of the present work was to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of percutaneous nucleolysis with O₂/O₃ in symptomatic root compression under the Maximum Intensity Projection (MPR) tomographic navigation technique. A prospective observational study was carried out on 345 patients with root compression at the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar levels in men and women with symptomatic disc herniation who underwent percutaneous nucleolysis peridural and foraminal block with O₂/O₃ during a period from May 2021 to May 2023. All nucleolysis was performed under MRP tomographic navigation with asepsis, antisepsis, and local anaesthesia measures. O₂/O₃, epidural, and foraminal were administered from 3 ml to 7 ml at a 15 μg/ml concentration. The effectiveness of the treatment was based on pain control according to the visual analog scale (VAS), the baseline at 3, 6, and 12 months after nucleolysis and through the Lattinen index and a treatment satisfaction survey that was evaluated before and after nucleolysis, at the end of the study. For the 345 patients, the initial VAS was 7.78±0.99 and the evolution at 3, 6, and 12 months was 2.43±2.19, 1.80±2.31 and 2.07±2.49, respectively, with significant differences (p<0.05) with respect to the initial value. The initial Lattinen index was 13.02±2.95 and increased to 6.7±2.14 at 3 months, 3±1.95 at 6 months, and 1.3±0.8 at 12 months with a statistically significant reduction (p<0.05). Regarding the satisfaction expressed by the patients at the end of the treatment, it was: “good” for 320 (92.7%), “regular” for 20 (5.6%), and “bad” for 5 (1.4%) who were referred to surgery. No patient had adverse effects. Percutaneous nucleolysis with O₂/O₃ was an effective and very safe technique in the treatment of pain due to a herniated disc with radiculopathy.

KEYWORDS: oxygen, ozone, percutaneous, nucleolysis, radiculopathy