Abstract

Results in 200 patients with lumbar disk disease who had chemonucleolysis were evaluated by two means. First, the surgeon evaluated the patients clinically from 6 to 30 months after chemonucleolysis by rating each case as excellent, good, fair, or unimproved. Results were judged excellent or good in 91% of the 153 “clean” cases (without previous operation) and in 53% of the 36 with previous operation; 11 patients were lost to follow-up. No patients were clinically worse than before treatment. Second, a physiatrist did a repeat electromyogram three months or longer after chemonucleolysis. He judged a patient improved if there was a decrease or disappearance of the positive waves and/or fibrillation potentials noted on initial electromyogram. Based on these objective findings, 90.5% of “clean” cases and 85.4% overall showed improvement. Surgeons' clinical evaluations and the independent physiatrical evaluations based on objective electromyographic findings thus correlated closely.