Premium
BACK ACHE AND SCIATICA: A REPORT OF 90 PATIENTS TREATED BY INTRADISCAL INJECTION OF CHYMOPAPAIN (DISCASE)
Author(s) -
Graham C. Edmund
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1974.tb93088.x
Subject(s) - chymopapain , sciatica , annulus (botany) , medicine , discography , low back pain , intervertebral disc , lumbar disc disease , surgery , back pain , lateral recess , lumbar , pathology , materials science , alternative medicine , composite material
After ten years of extensive research, it would now appear that the intradiscal injection of the enzyme chymopapain takes its place as an accepted form of conservative treatment of low back pain and sciatica. Ninety patients treated with this method since 1969 are presented. When this enzyme is injected into the disc centre, it hydrolyses the mucopolysaccharide protein complex into acid polysaccharide, polypeptide and amino acid. In this way, the water‐trapping properties of the nucleus pulposus are destroyed, and the pressure within the disc is permanently diminished. The adjacent structures including the annulus fibrosus are not affected by the enzyme. The level of symptomatic disc disease was established by means of a discogram carried out under general anæsthesia. The lateral approach to the disc, using a seven‐inch long needle, afforded disc entry well lateral to the dura and the painful posterior annulus. All of the 90 patients treated were long‐term back sufferers. Twenty‐five patients had an excellent result, and thirty‐six were considered to have a good result, while the remainder were unchanged.