TUESDAY, Nov. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Overall lumbar scoliosis, but not segmental scoliosis, decreases the likelihood of patient satisfaction and significant functional improvement in patients undergoing X-STOP surgery for spinal stenosis, according to research published in the November issue of The Spine Journal.
Kevin W. Rolfe, M.D., of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif., and colleagues conducted a prospective clinical outcome study comparing patients with scoliosis who underwent X-STOP (interspinous decompression for neurogenic claudication symptoms due to lumbar spinal stenosis) to patients without scoliosis who underwent the same procedure. Patients were divided into three groups: controls without scoliosis (group one); low scoliosis, 11 to 25 degrees (group two); and high scoliosis, 26 degrees or more (group three).
On average, all three groups improved for each measured outcome after the X-STOP procedure. The researchers found that there were significantly more disability index improvements of 15 or more points (P = .004) and significantly more subjective patient satisfaction (P = .0001) in groups one and two than in group three. For segmental scoliosis only, there was no statistical relationship between scoliosis and outcome.
"In conclusion, use of the X-STOP in patients with overall spinal scoliosis of the lumbar degenerative type greater than approximately 25 degrees must be considered in light of a lower likelihood for success, without increase in poor outcomes, but a greater chance of the remaining unchanged," the authors conclude. "In contrast, segmental scoliosis at a level to be treated is not a negative factor for outcome success."
Abbott Spine and Founders Spine Research provided research grant support. Several authors disclosed financial relationships with these and other entities in the biomedical and medical device industries.
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