Is Selective Endoscopic Discectomy™ (SED™) the same as Intradiscal Electrothermal Annuloplasty (IDET)?
No! Selective Endoscopic Discectomy™ with thermal annuloplasty is differentiated from IDET because SED™ is a visualized and targeted surgical procedure. A minimal discectomy is done to decompress the intradiscal pressure and more importantly, remove any interpositional nuclear material within the annular fibers that may be preventing the tear from healing. SED™ also utilizes continuous cool irrigation which flushes out the neurotoxic chemicals within the disc and removes any by-products of thermal modulation. IDET simply attempts to place a wire probe into the disc at the nucleus/annulus interface under fluoroscopic guidance and heats it for a short time to try and ablate the painful nerve endings and shrink the annular collagen. It is a “blind” procedure without visualization, no disc material is removed, and the by-products of the heated tissue remain which can be an irritant to the adjacent nerves.
