Background   At present, selective lumber nerve root block is widely used in spinal surgery, however, preoperative positioning and navigation techniques have various shortcomings.

  Objective   To explore the role of a new type of transforaminal puncture path targeting device combined with latex positioning plate in puncture location before selective lumber nerve root blocks, and analyze its effectiveness and safety in clinical application.

  Methods   From January 2019 to February 2020, 99 patients (48 males and 51 females) who underwent the operation of selective lumber nerve root blocks in department of orthopedics, the First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, were enrolled in our study. Before July 2019, latex positioning plate positioning puncture was applied to treat patients in group A, including 22 males and 25 females with an average age of 61.26±10.99 years. After July 2019, patients in group B, including 26 males and 26 females with an average age of 62.47±10.23 years, were treated with new transforaminal puncture path targeting device combined with latex positioning plate. The puncture times, fluoroscopy times, operation time and complications between the two groups were recorded and compared. The visual analogue scale (VAS) scores of the two groups were compared at 2h after operation. The differences between the actual puncture depth during operation and the theoretical puncture depth before operation were recorded and compared.

  Results  No complications were found in the two groups. The average puncture time in group A was significantly higher than that in group B (4.62±1.61 vs 1.32±0.55, P＜0.001). The average fluoroscopy times were 7.28±2.17 in group A and 4.23±1.42 in group B, with significant difference between the two groups (P＜0.001). The operation duration was longer in group A compared to group B (18.15±4.80 min vs 12.79±2.80 min, P＜0.001). There was significant difference in VAS scores at 2 h after operation between the two groups (3.23±1.43 vs 2.46±1.11, P＜0.001).

  Conclusion  The new type of transforaminal puncture path targeting device combined with latex positioning plate can effectively improve the accuracy of transforaminal puncture, reduce the times of puncture and fluoroscopy, operation time, and X-ray radiation of medical staff and patients.