Minimally invasive surgical decompression for lumbar spinal metastases

The risk of significant morbidity and mortality often outweighs the benefit of surgical resection as palliative treatment for patients with high systemic disease burden, poor cardiopulmonary status, and previous spinal surgeries. Minimally invasive surgical (MIS) approaches to decompressing metastatic epidural cord compression (MECC) can address these issues and thereby make palliation a feasible option for these patients.

We present the cases of three consecutively collected patients with severe neurological compromise secondary to lumbar epidural metastases who underwent MIS decompression and achieved improved functional outcome and quality of life. The first patient is a 23-year-old female with metastatic Ewing's sarcoma who presented with 2 weeks of a right foot drop and radiculopathic pain. The next case is that of a 71-year-old male with metastatic prostate cancer who presented with significant radiculopathic L5-S1 pain and severe motor deficits in his lower extremities. The last case is that of a 73-year-old male with metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma who presented with worsening left leg weakness, paresthesia, and dysethesia. Postoperatively, each patient experienced significant improvement and almost complete enduring return of function, strength, and resolution of pain.

We demonstrate that MIS approaches to spinal decompression as palliative treatment for metastatic disease is a viable treatment in patients with a focal symptomatic lesion and comes with the benefits of decreased surgical morbidity inherent to the minimally invasive approach as well as excellent functional outcomes.