Modified Taylor Retractor in Unilateral Subperiosteal Lumbar Microdiscectomy: A Frugal Alternative to the Tubular Retractor.

Objective To do a comparative surgical outcome and cost-benefit analysis of our simple modified Taylor retractor with both open and tubular techniques in lumbar discectomy. Methods We retrospectively divided 52 lumbar disc patients operated by 2 different techniques between January 2019 and June 2020 into 2 groups- group 1 (n = 20): standard open macrodiscectomy (4–5 cm incision); group 2 (n = 32): unilateral translaminar microdiscectomy using our modified Taylor retractor with a small incision (18–20 mm, comparable to the tubular retractor). We compared both groups in terms of surgical outcomes and cost-benefit analysis. In addition, a cost-benefit comparison between our modified Taylor technique and that of the already published tubular microdiscectomy cohort was done. Results Complete symptom resolution occurred in 85% group 1 and 84.4% group 2 patients, with no difference in complication rates. Mean hospital stay was significantly less in group 2 (1.2 ± 0.37 days) as compared with group 1 (2.4 ± 1.15, P Conclusions Similar clinical outcomes at decreased costs are obtained using the modified Taylor retractor compared with the tubular retractor. The modified Taylor retractor has a simple design, is user-friendly, and frugal alternative to the tubular retractor system for microscopic discectomy, especially in the resource-constrained countries.