Abstract
Background: Total lumbar facetectomy may be advantageous for exposure or to completely free a constricted nerve root.
Objective: We retrospectively reviewed a single surgeon series without fusion for short and long term outcomes regarding radicular pain relief, subsequent relevant surgeries, and any identifiable instability.
Methods: All operations in which a single, total lumbar facetectomy was performed were reviewed. A total of 222 patients were identified with a minimal follow-up of 3 months; 187 (84.2%) were available for long term follow-up ≥1 year by continued accessible health care records, correspondence, or mailed questionnaire.
Results: Short term success (3-month follow-up) for radicular pain relief in 222 patients found the following results: 176 patients (79.3%) had no pain or minimal pain, and 16 patients (7.2%) were improved, and thus resulting in 192 (86.5%) with no pain, or improved radicular pain. 30 patients (13.5%) were postoperative failures at 3 months. Long term follow-up ≥1 year was available for 187 patients (84.2%); (range 1–17 years; mean 7 years); found the following results: 23/30 (76.6%) short term surgical failures remained failures in long term follow-up with (7 patients) or without (16 patients) further surgery of any kind; 13/16 improved patients at long term follow-up remained improved (6), were pain free (6), or worse (1); 19/151 no or minimal pain patients at long term follow-up recurred or worsened by 1 year or longer, 12/19 pursued a second surgery with (9) or without (4) fusion and many improved. A total of 13 patients had a subsequent fusion operation (6.95%).
Discussion: Most patients do well in the short term for radicular pain relief. Most patients continue to do well in long term follow-up. Surgically induced clinical instability is uncommon in this highly selected series.
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to Mary Soper for her help in preparation of this manuscript.
Disclosure statement
The authors report no declarations of interest.