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Long-term results of surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis: a randomised controlled trial

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An Erratum to this article was published on 05 August 2011

Abstract

We randomised a total of 94 patients with long-standing moderate lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) into a surgical group and a non-operative group, with 50 and 44 patients, respectively. The operative treatment comprised undercutting laminectomy of stenotic segments, augmented with transpedicular-instrumented fusion in suspected lumbar instability. The primary outcome was the Oswestry disability index (ODI), and the other main outcomes included assessments of leg and back pain and self-reported walking ability, all based on questionnaire data from 85 patients at the 6-year follow-up. At the 6-year follow-up, the mean difference in ODI in favour of surgery was 9.5 (95% confidence interval 0.9–18.1, P-value for global difference 0.006), whereas the intensity of leg or back pain did not differ between the two treatment groups any longer. Walking ability did not differ between the treatment groups at any time. Decompressive surgery of LSS provided modest but consistent improvement in functional ability, surpassing that obtained after non-operative measures.

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Acknowledgments

Supported by the Finnish Office for Health Care Technology Assessment and the participating hospitals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ORTON Orthopaedic Hospital, Invalid Foundation, Helsinki, Finland

    Pär Slätis, Seppo Seitsalo, Kaj Tallroth & Heikki Hurri

  2. Centre for Health Economics, National Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 30, 00271, Helsinki, Finland

    Antti Malmivaara

  3. National Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 30, 00271, Helsinki, Finland

    Markku Heliövaara, Päivi Sainio & Paul Knekt

  4. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland

    Arto Herno & Veli Turunen

  5. Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery (JK), Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland

    Jyrki Kankare

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  1. Pär Slätis
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  2. Antti Malmivaara
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  3. Markku Heliövaara
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  11. Heikki Hurri
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Correspondence to Antti Malmivaara.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00586-011-1948-6

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Slätis, P., Malmivaara, A., Heliövaara, M. et al. Long-term results of surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis: a randomised controlled trial. Eur Spine J 20, 1174–1181 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-010-1652-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-010-1652-y

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