Surgical strategy should be planned with a balance of safety, functional recovery, and prognosis for the elderly patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH). This study compares two minimal-invasive techniques for treating elderly LDH patients, i. e., the minimal-invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF) and spinal endoscopy radiofrequency ablation (RF) in terms of safety, postoperative functional recovery, and prognosis quality, aiming to evaluate the application value of RF in postoperative rehabilitation and functional prognosis for elderly patients. The peri-operative parameters are used as the safety indicators, the rates of limited lumbar range of motion, recurring low back pain (LBP) at postoperative 1y are used to evaluate the rehabilitation level, and the visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain, Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score for the LDH related symptoms, as well as the Oswestry disability index (ODI) for quality of life are used as the prognosis indicators. The results show that the rate of perioperative complication, rate of limited lumbar range of motion, and prognostic ODI in the RF group are significantly lower than those in the MIS-TLIF group, while there are no significant differences in the rate of recurring LBP, VAS, and JOA score between the two groups. It indicates that the RF has the advantages of reducing perioperative complications, promoting postoperative recovery, and improving the prognostic quality of life for treating elderly patients with simple LDH.
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