Table 3: Rates of complications and reoperation across the randomized controlled trials of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) versus conventional open surgery for cervical and lumbar discectomy included in the meta-analysis
Complication; no. of patients
InfectionNerve-root injuryIncidental durotomyReoperationDeath
TrialMISOpenMISOpenMISOpenMISOpenMISOpen
Cervical
Soliman et al. (44)NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR
Ruetten et al. (45)00000033NRNR
Ruetten et al. (46)NRNRNRNRNRNR43NRNR
Kim et al. (47)NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR
Subtotal0000007600
Lumbar
Arts et al. (13), (48)0033147231410
Brock et al. (49)NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR
Franke et al. (50)0000NRNR52NRNR
Garg et al. (51)00005510NRNR
Huang et al. (52)0110NRNRNRNRNRNR
Righesso et al. (53)NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR
Ruetten et al. (54)01000065NRNR
Ryang et al. (55)NRNRNRNR0224NRNR
Shin et al. (56)NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR
Teli et al. (57)0420628300
Subtotal06632516452810
All06632516523410

Note: NR = not reported.