Aǧrı : Ağrı (Algoloji) Derneği'nin Yayın organıdır = The journal of the Turkish Society of Algology
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Low-back pain is one of the most common causes for seeking professional medical assistance and the most frequent cause of absence from work. It is not rare that the intervertebral discs are the etiological factor. Degenerated discs with internal disruptions may cause axial back pain whereas protrusion or herniation of a disc may result in radicular pain. ⋯ Chemonucleolysis, automated percutaneous lumbar discectomy (APLD), intradiscal laser discectomy, intradiscal electrothermal therapy (IDET) and most recently percutaneous nucleoplasty are the minimally invasive techniques developed for this aim. Percutaneous nucleoplasty is a minimally invasive technique which uses radiofrequency energy to ablate the nucleus pulposus in a controlled manner for disc decompression. The current data about this new technique is insufficient yet, but the preliminary reports indicate that the technique is relatively safe and the outcomes are encouraging.