Abstract:Objective To analyze the clinical efficacy of annulus fibrosus suture (AFS) combined with percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD) on the treatment of lumbar disc herniation (LDH).Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 202 patients with LDH who were treated in the orthopedics department of this hospital from March 2020 to December 2023. According to different surgical methods, the patients were divided into the PELD group (receiving simple PELD treatment, 93 cases) and the combined group (AFS combined with PELD treatment, 109 cases). Compare the perioperative related indicators of the two groups; the lumbar function, the degree of low back and leg pain, the neurological function and the degeneration of lumbar intervertebral discs were compared between the two groups before the operation and 3 months after the operation. The occurrence of complications during hospitalization and the recurrence during the 1-year postoperative follow-up were compared between the two groups.Results The operation time of the combined group was significantly longer than that of the PELD group, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05); There were no statistically significant differences in the number of fluoroscopy sessions, blood loss and hospital stay between the two groups (P > 0.05). Three months after the operation, the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), the visual analogue scale (VAS) score for low back pain, and the VAS score for leg pain in both groups were significantly lower than those before the operation, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). However, when comparing the two groups, the differences were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Three months after the operation, the latencies of the tibial nerve and the common peroneal nerve in both groups were significantly shorter than those before the operation, the nerve conduction velocities of the tibial nerve and the common peroneal nerve were significantly faster than those before the operation, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). However, when comparing the two groups, there were no statistically significant differences (P > 0.05). One year after the operation, the lumbar lordosis angle and spinal canal area in both groups were larger than those before the operation, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05), but there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups (P > 0.05). One year after the operation, the height of the responsible intervertebral space in the PELD group was significantly lower than that before the operation, and that in the combined group was significantly higher than that in the PELD group. The differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). During hospitalization, there was no statistically significant difference in the total incidence of complications between the two groups [2.15% (2/93) and 2.75% (3/109)] (P > 0.05). The recurrence rate of the combined group one year after surgery was 0.92% (1/109), which was significantly lower than 7.53% (7/93) in the PELD group, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05).Conclusion Both PELD and AFS combined with PELD in the treatment of LDH can improve lumbar function, low back and leg pain, and neurological function of patients, with high safety. The operation time of combined therapy is longer than that of simple PELD, but the improvement of lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration is better than that of simple PELD, and the recurrence rate is lower than that of simple PELD.