Clinical analysis on surgical treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis in elderly patients aged 65 years and over / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the surgical results of spinal stenosis in the elderly and to investigate the indications , surgical technique and factors which may contribute to the outcome. Methods A retrospective study was held, 304 patients aged 65 and over who had different kinds of decompression laminectomy for lumbar spinal stenosis between Jan 1990 and Jun 2005 were recruited. The mean patient age at surgery was 70.4 years (65-86 years old). Results One hundred and seventy-five cases had co-existing illnesses, 62 had concomitant degenerative spondylolisthesis, 138 had spinal instrumentation. Functional results were graded as excellent, good, fair and poor 86. 8% excellent or good, 11. 2% fair and 6 cases poor. Four patients had re-operations because of post operation hematomas. Multivariate analysis revealed that age, sex, co-morbidity score, number of levels decompressed, and degenerative spondylolisthesis did not predict bad outcomes. Conclusions The surgical results of spinal stenosis in the elderly are favourable and comparable to those reported for the general population . Carefully perioperative preparation is very important in the treatment of elderly patient with lumbar spinal stenosis.