Surgical results and prognostic factors following percutaneous full endoscopic posterior decompression for thoracic myelopathy caused by ossification of the ligamentum flavum

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has shown satisfactory surgical results for the treatment of thoracic myelopathy (TM) caused by ossification of the ligamentum flavum (OLF). This study investigated the prognostic factors following MIS and was based on the retrospective analysis of OLF patients who underwent percutaneous full endoscopic posterior decompression (PEPD). Thirty single-segment OLF patients with an average age of 60.4 years were treated with PEPD under local anaesthesia. Clinical data were collected from the medical and operative records. The surgical results were assessed by the recovery rate (RR) calculated from the modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association (mJOA) score. Correlations between the RR and various factors were analysed. Patients’ neurological status improved from a preoperative mJOA score of 6.0 ± 1.3 to a postoperative mJOA score of 8.5 ± 2.0 ( P