Matt, welcome to the forum.
What do you fly?
I wrote about hydrocision fusions here (I know that you are looking at discectomy, not fusion, but you may find this interesting):
http://www.ispine.org/forum/ispine/1...-data-too.html
I don't think that the "bone drilling" approach will be substantially different than other endoscopic discectomy techniques. You still have to get the scope and tools to the discectomy site.
IMHO, the key is finding someone who is REALLY good at whatever technique you choose. I would choose endoscopic over open if I needed a discectomy. However, I'd rather have an excellent open discectomy than a mediocre endoscopic.
I have observed surgeries with a surgon who had 400 procedures under his belt. He was ALL THUMBS compared to the guy who developed the procedure. I would have thought that 400 was way more than enough, but this really demonstrated to me that there can be a HUGE difference with the same procedure between one surgeon and the next. This can be true even when both have high numbers..
Good luck! let us know how it goes.
Mark