Fredrik Strömqvist, Bo Jönsson, Björn Strömqvist


April 2012, Volume 21, Issue 5, pp 825 - 828 Eurospine Full Paper Award 2011 Read Full Article 10.1007/s00586-011-2101-2

First Online: 07 December 2011

Introduction

Decompression for lumbar spinal stenosis is one of the most frequent operations on the spine today. The most common complication seems to be a peroperative dural lesion. There are few prospective studies on this complication regarding incidence and effect on long-term outcome; this is the background for the current study.

Materials and methods

Swespine, the Swedish Spine Register documents the majority (>80%) of lumbar spine operations in Sweden today. Within the framework of this register, totally 3,699 operations for spinal stenosis during a 5-year period were studied regarding complications and 1-year postoperative outcome. Mean patient age was 66 (37–92) years and 44% were males. Fourteen percent were smokers and 19% had undergone previous lumbar spine surgery.

Results

The overall incidence of a peroperative dural lesion was 7.4%, 8.5% of patients undergoing decompressive surgery only and 5.5% of patients undergoing decompressive surgery + fusion (p 

Conclusion

A dural lesion was seen in 7.4% of decompressive operations for spinal stenosis. High age, previous surgery and smoking were risk factors for sustaining a lesion, which, however, did not affect the 1-year outcome negatively.


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