Transforaminal Endoscopic Surgery for Adjacent Segment Disease After Lumbar Fusion

The natural history of degenerative disease after instrumented lumbar fusion can result in symptomatic radiculopathy at the adjacent segment. Here we describe our experience with transforaminal endoscopic decompression for the treatment of adjacent segment radiculopathy.

A technique for the transforaminal endoscopic treatment of lumbar radiculopathy adjacent to instrumented lumbar fusions is presented. Prospectively, we followed a series of 9 consecutive patients operated on with lumbar radiculopathy above (5) or below (4) their instrumented fusion. Preoperative and postoperative clinical data with 2-year follow-up are presented.

A consecutive series of 9 patients who underwent transforaminal endoscopic treatment for lumbar radiculopathy adjacent to an instrumented spinal fusion between 2012 and 2014 is presented. Three patients required revision to fusion at 2, 13, and 19 months postoperatively. The mean visual analogue scale score for radicular pain improved from an average pain score before surgery of 8.4 to 1.3 1 year after surgery and the mean visual analogue scale for back pain improved from an average pain score before surgery of 8.0 to 4.7 1 year after surgery (excluding the 1 patient with 2month postoperative failure).

Transforaminal endoscopic surgical access to adjacent level disease pathology may be a unique approach to the treatment of adjacent segment disease because it allows for neural decompression of disc and foraminal pathology without requiring significant destabilizing bone removal. However, the 2-year failure rate presented here is 33%, which indicates that the benefit of this technique may ultimately be temporary.