Eight Cases of Thoracic Stenosis due to Ossification of Ligamentum Flavum

The authors report eight cases of thoracic stenosis due to ossification of ligamentum flavum. Motor and sensory deficits were found in all cases and urinary incontinence was found in one case. Diagnosis was made from simple x-rays, myelography, computerized tomography, myelography-CT, and magnetic resonance imaging. Treatment consisted of sufficient posterior decompressive laminectomy and medial facetectomy which resulted in satisfactory improvement in 6 cases, fair course in 1 case and poor course in 1 case.

Clinical Analysis of Bone Fusion for Spinal Stenosis with and without Instrumentation

Spinal stenosis has several types of etiology such as degenerative, spondylolisthetic and postoperative, etc. Operative management for spinal stenosis is adequate decompression and stabilization of the unstable lumbar spine created by the decompressive procedure. We analysed 52 operative cases of spinal stenosis delete from January 1994 to October 1996. The following results were obtained 1) The male and female ratio was 1:1.9 and mean age was 52.1 years old 2) Mean follow-up period was 20.3 months 3) The involved site was one level in(28)(53.9%), two level in(19)(36.5%), and three levels in(5)(9.6%) 4) For decompression method, total laminectomy combined with foraminotomy and facetectomy was employed procedure. 5) For stabilization, bilateral posterolateral fusion was performed in major damaged facet joint and transverse process. Instrumentation was combined in 61.5% delete of all cases 6) According to the criteria of Kirkaldy-willis, excellent and good results were shown in 90.6% of fused group with instrumentation and 85% of fused group without instrumentation.