Pittsburgh, January 14, 2005 -- UPMC Spine Surgery Center surgeon Peter C. Gerszten, MD, was featured in a live webcast, broadcast by or-live.com, discussing nucleoplasty percutaneous discectomy technique, a minimally invasive procedure now used in treating patients diagnosed with a herniated disc. In the webcast Dr. Gerszten narrated a step-by-step video of the operating room procedure. A discussion of the procedure and animation accompanied the video.

According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, about one in every 50 people experiences a herniated disc, which may present with leg and/or back pain and be debilitating to patients. For those who don't respond to non-surgical treatments (including a short period of rest, anti-inflammatory medications to reduce the swelling, analgesic drugs to control the pain, physical therapy, exercise or epidural steroid injection therapy), surgery may seem to be the only option.

DISC Nucleoplasty® is a refined tool for removing excess disc tissue, a well-established mechanism for percutaneous disc decompression that has been shown to improve patient functionality in 75 percent of patients. This type of tissue removal has been used in over 3 million procedures throughout the body with three randomized controlled studies completed.