Decompressive surgery for typical lumbar spinal stenosis

Between 1991 and 1992, 103 consecutive patients (average age, 65 years) und erwent decompressive surgery for treatment of typical lumbar spinal stenosi s. Clinical results at 1-year followup revealed that four patients had revi sion surgery. At 2- to 5-years followup, there were no additional revision surgeries. Two patients underwent revision surgery for a deep infection, an d two underwent revision surgery for a superficial infection. Outcome resul ts showed that 77 patients completed the questionnaire, 15 were lost to fol lowup and 11 died. Postoperative results showed that 64 of 77 patients had no or mild pain, 72 of 77 patients stated that they were satisfied or somew hat satisfied with their overall results of surgery, and 73 of 77 were sati sfied with pain relief, Younger patients had greater improvement in functio n and a greater reduction in severity scores. However, satisfaction was sim ilar in both groups. Survivorship results (failure was revision surgery) sh owed at the end of 4 years, a patient had a 95% chance of not having revisi on surgery. Statistically, there was no association between outcome and cof actors such as scoliosis, spondylolisthesis, number of levels decompressed, discectomy, or smoking. Satisfaction rates for older patients were similar to patients younger than 65 years although physical function scores and se verity scores were less.