Neurológia pre prax 1/2023

Surgical treatment of the secondary lumbar spinal stenosis (a narrative review)

Patients with lumbar spinal stenosis may experience symptoms such as back pain, nerve root irritation and neurogenic claudication. Although studies have shown that differences between non-surgical and surgical treatments are not significant, positive effects such as early pain relief, associated functional improvement and higher quality of life, may be expected after surgery in patients with severe lumbar stenosis. Surgical treatment consists of decompression of nerve structures. Additional stabilization is considered depending on the degree of decompression and accompanying instability. Recently introduced techniques of minimally invasive surgery bring promising surgical results and their further development can be expected in the near future. Thus, even better therapeutic effects may be expected with an approach aimed at understanding the pathophysiology, taking into account morphology and knowledge of predictors of treatment methods for lumbar spinal stenosis.

Keywords: lumbar spine, secondary stenosis, surgical treatment, decompression, surgical stabilization