Table 1:

Clinical studies included in this review

Reference No.	Number of Patients	Successful Outcome			Complications		Nature of Trial	Follow-up (months)
Reference No.	Number of Patients	n	%	CI (%)	n	%	Nature of Trial	Follow-up (months)
8	26	20	77	59–95	0	0	Case series	?
9	169	128	76	70–82	2	1.2	Case series	19 (mean)
10	7	6	86	60–100	1	12.5	Case series	3–4
11	63	44	72	59–85	1	1.8	Case control	20–45
12	350	265	76	72–80	5	0.97	Case series	84 (mean)
13	14	9	64	33–95	0	0	Case series	6
14	82	57	70	58–82	0	0	Case series	12–24
15	46	31	67	50–84	0	0	Case series	2–21
16	50	37	74	60–88	4	8	Case series	24–60
17	99	86	87	80–94	0	0	Case series	24
18	197	147	75	69–81	1	0.51	Case series	Max. 44
19	147	115	78	71–85	1	0.6	Case series	Max. 60
20	35	32	92	83–100	1	2.8	Case series	18
21	164	86	^*	^*	14	9.6	Case series	At least 12
25	40	34	85	73–97	0	0	Case series	18
27	90	66	73	63–84	0	0	Case series	12–23

* In this trial, each patient was assigned to 1 of 3 groups: 1) those who met all selection criteria for PLDD (leg pain, positive physical examination finding such motor, sensory, or reflex deficits, and/or straight leg raise, contained disk herniation confirmed by diskography); 2) those who did not meet the selection criteria (had a normal physical examination, the presence of stenosis, spondylolisthesis, extruded disk fragment, leakage of diskographic dye from the outer annulus, multiple prior lumbar surgeries; or 3) those who could not be assigned to either of the first 2 groups for reasons such as diskography not being performed or inadequate physical examination data recorded in the chart. In group 1, 29 of 41 patients (70.7%; CI, 57%–85%) had successful outcomes. In group 2, 12 of 42 patients (29%; CI, 12%–42%) had successful outcomes. In group 3, 45 of 81 patients (56%; CI, 45%–66%) had successful outcomes. In group 4, 20 of 45 patients (44%; CI, 30%–59%) had successful outcomes.