About the Authors
- Richard Kasch
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* E-mail: richard.kasch@uni-greifswald.de
Affiliation Clinic and Outpatient Clinic for Orthopedics and Orthopedic Surgery, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
- Birger Mensel
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Affiliation Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Neuroradiology, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
- Florian Schmidt
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Affiliation Clinic and Outpatient Clinic for Orthopedics and Orthopedic Surgery, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
- Wolf Drescher
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Affiliation Department of Orthopedic and Trauma Surgery, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Ralf Pfuhl
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Affiliation Leibnitz Institute for Farm Animal Biology, Dummerstorf, Germany
- Sebastian Ruetten
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Affiliation Department of Spine Surgery and Pain Therapy, Center for Orthopedics and Traumatology, St. Anna-Hospital Herne, Herne, Germany
- Harry R. Merk
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Affiliation Clinic and Outpatient Clinic for Orthopedics and Orthopedic Surgery, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
- Ralph Kayser
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Affiliation Clinic and Outpatient Clinic for Orthopedics and Orthopedic Surgery, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
Competing Interests
The authors have read the journal’s policy and have the following conflicts: ArthroCare Deutschland, Remscheid, provided the technical equipment needed for nucleoplasty. The authors received for their project the nucleoplasty Convenience Pack (DLR SpineWand and sterile 17-gauge Crawford needle (6”) with mandrin) from ArthroCare Germany. There are no further patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.
Author Contributions
Conceived and designed the experiments: R. Kasch R. Kayser HM BM. Performed the experiments: R. Kasch FS BM R. Kayser RP. Analyzed the data: R. Kasch FS BM R. Kayser WD SR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: RP. Wrote the paper: R. Kasch R. Kayser FS SR WD HM.