The Discseel® Procedure
/ Treatment Overview

Disc hernia operation aims to remove the protruding part of the disc, but leaves the disc the way it is without treating the damage. As a result, nucleus pulposus leaks again through the crack in the disc wall, resulting in persistent inflammation. The Discseel® Procedure treats the disc damage itself and suppresses further leaking of nucleus pulposus.

The drug solution is not irritating or inflammatory, and even if comes in contact with the nerve, it will not affect it. We have treated more than 4,000 patients, but there have been no records of nerve damage caused.

Discseel® Procedure is possible if scoliosis is mild, but treatment of severe scoliosis is difficult. We can make a decision using image diagnosis by X-ray or MRI.

Since it’s possible to have intervertebral disc damage even in places where no abnormality appears on the MRI, we check for cracks before treatment and decide the area(s) to treat. We check because, if there’s intervertebral disc damage, it becomes the cause of low back pain, and nucleus pulposus matter leaks from the damaged areas and brings about inflammation of the nerves. We therefore do contrast radiography on all intervertebral discs suspected of abnormality, and the areas to treat are decided after we clarify the presence or absence of damage.

Since 1960s surgical operations were used to remove tissue such as deformed bone or herniated discs and occasionally attempted to immobilize the area, but because of new bone damage from screws or the fact that no treatment of the root cause was being done, the problems of chronical post operative pain and high recurrence rates appeared.
That is why the need for treatment of the root cause of back pain increased in the 1980s, and the development of new intervertebral disc treatments, including some of these we perform at our clinic began. Nowadays, medicine has progressed to the point of using stem cell transplantation and fibrin sealant, especially like Discseel® that has been acknowledged not only for its intervertebral disc repair and regeneration effect, but also for improving symptoms and lowering recurrence rate.

When disc degeneration is confirmed by the results of MRI and X-ray, considering the risk of developing back pain it is possible to undergo the Discseel® Procedure as a preventative measure even though there are no symptoms. At our clinic, patients have to go through series of test before treatment to determine whether the Discseel® Procedure is appropriate them. Please feel free to contact us for details.

There are no restriction for sports when played as a hobby, but if you compete on a professional level, there is a high possibility of causing new intervertebral disc damage, so we recommend undergoing the Discseel® Procedure once a year.

When the volume of vertebral discs increases rapidly as a result of the treatment, symptoms such as lower back tension, muscle aches and discomfort may appear because of the shrunken ligaments get stretched, and gradually fade away within 2 weeks.

It will be fine to do it at least 2 weeks after undergoing the Discseel® Procedure. However, it is recommended that patients refrain from excessive exercise or carrying heavy luggage for about a month after the treatment.