A new significant success in the field of publication activities of the Interventional Pain Academy is the professional article “Endoscopic discectomy of the herniated intervertebral disc and changes in the quality-of-life EQ-5D-5L analysis” by EuroPainClinics specialists and cooperating authors, which was published in the current issue of the prestigious journal Medicine.
The authors headed by MUDr. Róbert Rapčan, FIPP, MBA, PhD., medical director of EuroPainClinics, present an analysis of the results of a clinical study, the aim of which was to evaluate changes in the quality of life of patients who underwent a minimally invasive procedure of percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy using three types of approaches. The clinical study registered in the international database Clinical Trials.gov (NCT02742311) included a total of 470 patients and took place at workplaces in Bratislava, Bardejov, Košice, Prague and Brno.
Several types of health questionnaires were used to assess the quality of life. Primarily, the intensity of pain radiating to the back and limbs measured using a numerical rating scale (NRS) and the extent of lower back pain using the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) questionnaire were evaluated. The EuroQol research also included the five-dimensional questionnaire EQ-5D-5L, which examines five aspects: mobility, self-care, everyday activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression, and the assessment of quality of life using the visual analogue scale EQ-VAS. The results of the study showed a significant improvement in all monitored parameters, including the alleviation of back and lower limb pain, which persisted 12 months after the endoscopic procedure.
At the same time, the results of the study showed that percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy as a minimally invasive technique with a number of clinical advantages, such as reducing the use of general anesthesia, less damage to soft tissues and surrounding muscles, faster wound healing, reduction of spinal instability and shorter recovery time, is effective in the treatment of pain, and when comparing different approaches, no significant differences in complications or re-herniations (re-protrusion of discs) were observed.
The professional article can be viewed at the link here
Congratulations on the extraordinary publication achievement are directed to all the authors from among the doctors of the Interventional Pain Academy and other specialists of cooperating clinical facilities, scientific institutions and university workplaces who participated in the extensive implementation of the study and the precise and demanding preparation for publishing the results, namely MUDr. Róbert Rapčan, FIPP, MBA, PhD., MUDr. Ladislav Kočan, PhD., FIPP, doc. RNDr. Viktor Witkovsky, CSc., MUDr. Simona Rapčanová, MD. Juraj Mláka, FIPP, EDRA, MUDr. Róbert Tirpák, FIPP, MUDr. Miroslav Buriánek, MBA, doc. RNDr. Janka Vašková, PhD., doc. MUDr. Miroslav Gajdoš, CSc., for coordinating clinical questionnaires Eva Manik and Bc. Ema Hutková.
The peer-reviewed journal Medicine® with open access (Wolters Kluwer, Baltimore, USA, impact factor 1.82), is a high-quality platform for publishing scientific content of a wide range of medical sciences and subspecialties, covers the latest research and development in clinical medicine, and publishes texts from more than 40 professional areas.
