There was trend to perform the concomitant fusion and instrumentation in decompression of spinal stenosis, because of extensive decompression and instability. However, the introduction of the microscopy in spinal operation and the development of
surgical technique make exquisite decompression possible, minimize the range of excision of excision of posterior anatomic structures, reduce decompression levels in the multiple lesions, and minimize anterior slipage by maintaining the stability
of the
spine without performing spinal fusion.
The authors performed the spinal nerve root block and microscopic decompression in the treatment of 25 patients of lumbar spinal stenosis. The ages of patients were either above sixty-years-old or in their fifties who had osteoporosis with
Saville's
index 2 or higher. The patients were followed up at least twelve moths (mean 17.6 months). Analysis of the overall results showed that excellent, good, fair, and poor grades were 16%, 56%, 16%, and 12%, respectively. We recommend the selective
microscopic decompression is one of the effective method for the elderly patients or patients with osteoporosis in addition to multiple stenotic lesions.
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