• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.570-582
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• 2022

Nucleoplasty is a type of percutaneous disc decompression that has been developed to treat herniated intervertebral discs. Currently, in some clinics, researchers have also applied this procedure to patients with internal disc disruption, apart from the originally intended usage on herniated intervertebral discs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of this extended use based on medical logic. To achieve this, the author analyzed case studies on performing nucleoplasty on patients with internal disc disruption. The main points of the analysis are, first, the validity of the treatment evidence presented by the researchers and, second, the relevance of the patient selection criteria. As a result, it is judged that the therapeutic rationale of existing papers applying nucleoplasty to the treatment of internal disc disruption is unclear or inconsistent with general medical logic, and in the process of patient screening, discs that may be deemed inappropriate for percutaneous decompression are included. Therefore, the author believes that existing studies applying nucleoplasty to the treatment of internal disc disruption have the nature of somewhat adventurous experiments that are unnecessary or can cause potential side effects. In order to uphold patients' rights and improve the completeness of the study in the research process on this topic, the author thinks that it is essential to establish clearer therapeutic evidence than the current level of understanding and to have an elaborate patient screening process based on it.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.311-320
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• 2019

Discogenic pain which develops during the degenerative process of intervertebral disc is an intractable disease of musculoskeletal system. Unlike other diseases in modern medical science, it is not clinically confirmed through objective imaging and clinicopathologic index. Moreover, current technology has been facing difficulties finding fundamental treatment. This study examined through reviewing literature whether the therapeutic rationales of interventional procedures for the discogenic pain, such as nerve block, intradiscal electrothermal therapy and nucleoplasty, are valid and whether safety reviews such as preclinical tests are carried out faithfully during the technology development process. As a result, it is presumed that there is not yet an interventional treatment for discogenic pain, whose therapeutic rationale has been objectively verified. And there are some cases of interventional treatment that have not been adequately equipped with the preclinical test steps necessary to review the safety of the procedure during the technology development process. In conclusion, since there is still no interventional treatment for discogenic pain which has clear therapeutic rationale, it is necessary to recognize that a more careful approach is needed to judge whether the procedure is performed in clinical settings. And medical ethical issues may arise for some interventional treatment that are deemed to have been carried out without a thorough review of safety.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.378-383
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• 2007

As the Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is developed, an interventional procedure becomes the major of the spine surgery in the world. Despite of the use of the expensive medical equipments, the success chance of the nucleoplasty is about 30%. The reason is that the shape of the cannular needle is similar to that of the conventional injector and looks like the straight. Because the tip of these straight needles is not able to reach in the vicinity of the disc bulging or the protrusion, which are the cause of the low back pain and because the far indirect plasma discharge results in the decompression, the nucleoplasty has the limit. Many incurable diseases has not been solved due to the unexistence of the advanced technique for the MIS human body cannula device. If 3-D direction controllable cannular catheter (whose direction is accurately controlled after inserting into the bodies to cure the lesion) is developed, it is expected that new devised cannular catheter can cure many incurable diseases simultaneously. Therefore, the aims of this research are to develop the new devised cannular catheter of SMA direction controller for the medical situation, which has been produced through many previous trial-error procedures, and to produce the commercial medical device.

• Archives of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.73-80
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• 2018

Purpose: This study was evaluated the effects of nucleoplasty and chemonucleolysis, as interventional treatments for herniated intervertebral disc disease, on spinal tissues. Methods: Nucleoplasty using plasma beam and chemonucleolysis with collagenase were conducted on the spinal motion segments that were dissected from of human cadaver spine under fluoroscopic guidance. After the procedure, the intervertebral discs were transected, and the changes in gross findings were examined. Subsequently, the influence of the procedure on the nucleus pulposus, annuls fibrosus, and endplate was analyzed through a pathologic examination. Results: Nucleoplasty was confirmed to eliminate the local range of tissues in nucleus pulposus according to the procedure tract and to not affect other tissues. In chemonucleolysis, we found that collagenase diffused from the surgical site within the nucleus pulposus and was not present in the annulus fibrosus and endplate. Conclusions: The clinically-used interventional treatments that were investigated here were not found to do not cause additional damage to areas other than those targeted.