## 3 Results  
The average age was 32.4 years (range, 13-68 years). The average duration since the onset of disease was 8.6 months (range, 1-26 months). There were 32 cases with intracanal LDHs, and 1 case each with foraminal LDH and extraforaminal LDH. Cases with LDH type (intracanal LDH) were as follows: protrusion in 5 patients, subligamentous extrusion in 24 patients, and trans-ligamentous extrusion in 3 patients. The LDH level was L4/5 in 25 patients and L5/S in 9 patients. Except for one patient with recurrence, the remaining 33 patients had de novo LDH (Table 1). Figure 4: High intensity change of protruded nucleus pulposus. The intensity of the protruded NP content is higher than that of the protruded NP surface (yellow arrow). We divided the patients into two groups (good group (G): NRS score improvement \(\geq\) 50%, poor group (P): NRS score improvement \(<\) 50%). In terms of low back and leg pain, the G group included 9/34 (26.5%) and 21/34 (61.8%) patients, respectively. The NRS score for leg pain improved significantly 3 months after chemonuclelysis with condoliase (Figure 5). Regarding age (low back pain G/P 21/36.4 years), low back pain in the G group was seen more in the younger age group compared to that in the P group (\(p\) = 0.001) (Table 2). Regarding disease duration (low back pain G/P 7.4/9.3 months, leg pain G/P 8.4/9.1 months) and BMI (low back pain G/P 22.4/23.9, leg pain G/P 23.5/21.7), there was no significant difference between the two groups (Tables 2 and 3). Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the proportion of patients who had a positive SLR test. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline \hline
**All Patients** & **(\(n\) = 34)** \\ \hline Age (years) & 32.4 \(\pm\) 13.0 \\ Female & 10 \\ BMI & 22.8 \(\pm\) 4.07 \\ Herniation level & \\ L4/5 & 25 \\ L5/S & 9 \\ disease duration (months) & 8.6 \(\pm\) 6.54 \\ SLR & \\ positive & 20 \\ negative & 10 \\ data loss & 4 \\ NRS for back pain & 4.15 \(\pm\) 2.35 \\ NRS for leg pain & 6.47 \(\pm\) 2.03 \\ Herniation type & \\ protrusion & 5 \\ sub-ligamentous & 24 \\ trans-ligamentous & 3 \\ Intraforaminal herniation & 1 \\ Extraforaminal herniation & 1 \\ Pfirrmann classification & \\ Grade II & 13 \\ Grade III & 20 \\ Grade IV & 1 \\ Postoperative recurrent herniation & 1 \\ HIC of protruded NP on MRI & 18 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Continuous data are presented as the mean \(\pm\) SD. Categorical data are presented as numbers. Disc degeneration was graded on T2-weighted MRI using a grading system proposed by [PERSON] [29]. BMI, body mass index; SLR, straight leg raising; NRS, numerical rating scale; LDH, lumbar disc herniation; HIC, high-intensity change; NP, nucleus pulposus; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Demographic data of 34 patients. The preoperative imaging findings were not significantly different between the two groups in patients with low back pain (Table 4). However, a significant difference was observed between the two groups in patients with leg pain with respect to the proportion of patients with HIC of the protruded NP (14/21 in G, 4/13 in P, \(p\) = 0.04) (Table 5). A significant difference was also observed between patients with leg pain in the two groups in terms of the spinal canal occupancy of NP. An occupancy ratio \(\geq\) 40% was observed in the G group with leg pain (13/21 in G, 3/13 in P, \(p\) = 0.03) (Table 5).