Degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis—results of expansive laminoplasty

Expansive laminoplasty, a procedure used more and more often for cervical myelopathy, was carried out in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis in the Department of Orthopaedics, Paraplegia, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of our institute. Twenty-five such clinico-radiologically proven cases were operated upon. For radiological evaluation, computed tomography (CT) was used. Expansive laminoplasty decompresses the nerve roots by osteoplastic enlargement of the lumbar spinal canal, with the maintenance of spinal stability. These advantages were confirmed during the follow-up of 3 to 5 years. Using CT, the spinal canal was found to be enlarged to a nearly rectangular shape and the average enlargement was 124%. The visual analogue scale (VAS) was used for subjective pain assessment before and after the surgery. The ultimate outcome was assessed by the Surin et al. criteria (Spine 17:1–8, 1992).