Abstract

A retrospective review of social insurance claim files of male blue collar workers was conducted to compare the social insurance costs of percutaneous lumbar nucleotomy with standard lumbar discectomy ; 29 percutaneous nucleotomy procedures were matched with 58 standard discectomies all carried out between January 1992 and December 1994. It was concluded that a standard discectomy procedure results in significantly higher costs during hospitalisation with respect to surgery, anaesthesia and hospital stay. A percutaneous nucleotomy leads to a significantly higher outpatient expenditure especially in radiology and medical devices. The relative proportion of outpatient practitioner's visits and hospital stay costs was significantly higher for the standard discectomy whereas medical devices had a relatively higher share in outpatient expenditure for the percutaneous nucleotomy. In this population of 87 compensation claimants, the average social insurance costs did not significantly differ between the percutaneous nucleotomy and the standard discectomy.