Objective:

To evaluate the incidence and safety of clinical complications associated with percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD) for the treatment of recurrent lumbar disc herniation (RLDH) by meta-analysis.

Methods:

PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and Web of Science electronic databases were searched for clinical studies on complications related to the treatment of RLDH with PELD. The search time extended from the databases’ inception until May 2021. RevMan5.4 software was used for meta-analysis after two researchers independently scanned the literature, gathered data, and assessed the bias risk of the included studies.

Results:

A total of 8 clinical studies, including 1 randomized controlled trial and 7 cohort studies including 906 individuals, were included. According to the results of the meta-analysis, the overall complications (OR = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.04-0.83, p = 0.03) and dural tear rates (OR = 0.11, 95% CI: 0.01-0.92, p = 0.04) of PELD were lower than those of traditional fenestration nucleus pulposus removal. Moreover, the PELD group had a greater recurrence rate compared to the MIS-TLIF group (OR = 19.71, 95% CI: 3.68-105.62, p = 0.0005), and the difference was statistically significant. However, compared with MED and MIS-TLIF, there were no significant differences in the incidence of overall complications, dural tear, nerve root injury, and incomplete nucleus pulposus removal (P > 0.05).

Conclusion:

PELD is an effective and safe method for the treatment of recurrent lumbar disc herniation, with a lower incidence of complications and higher safety profile than traditional fenestration nucleus pulposus removal.