Long-Term Results and Efficacy of Laminectomy with Fusion Versus Young Laminoplasty for the Treatment of Degenerative Spinal Stenosis.

OBJECTIVE: In the treatment of degenerative lumbar stenosis, facet-sparing laminectomy with instrumented fusion (FSL) was recently almost totally replaced by less invasive, allegedly equally effective surgical techniques. We performed a long-term comparison between outcomes after Young laminoplasty (YL) as a representative of the less invasive technique and FSL. METHODS: From December 4, 2000, to March 11, 2005, 56 patients with a history of neurogenic claudication and radiologically verified absolute lumbar stenosis were surgically treated. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 44 patients were enrolled. RESULTS: Using the Oswestry Disability Index scale, significant improvement on 1-year and 8-year follow-up examinations was noticed in the FSL and YL groups. The Oswestry Disability Index was significantly better in the FSL group compared with the YL group at the 8-year follow-up (27.82 +/- 1.918 vs. 40.74 +/- 2.163). CONCLUSIONS: FSL is a more invasive and more expensive surgical technique than YL. In a short-term and long-term follow-up comparison, FSL is a more successful operative technique, and the difference increases over time in favor of FSL.