In a retrospective study, surgeons examined the clinical outcome and risk of postoperative instability five years after microdecompression for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis using the interspinous approach and published their findings in Spine.
The researchers examined data from 106 patients and found the Oswestry Disability Index improved from 58.2 percent to 21.61 percent and the visual analogue scale showed that the intensity of leg and back pain decreased from 8.62 and 8.69 points to 2.33 and 3.48 points.
Furthermore, walking capacity changed from severely restrictive to slightly restrictive and in 93 percent of the cases patients were moderately or very satisfied. Dynamic radiographs showed no postoperative instability.
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