Spinal Stenosis

Results showed treatment of degenerative spondylolisthesis in agreement with surgeon recommendations to perform decompression with fusion may not be associated with improved outcomes compared with standard treatment of decompression alone.

Compared with nonsurgical treatment, surgical treatment of Medicare patients with single-level lumbar stenosis was associated with lower mortality rates and costs at 2 years, according to published results.

CT myelogram may demonstrate additional stenotic levels among patients with multilevel stenosis on MRI but not in patients with no or single-level stenosis, according to results presented here.

A recently published study found when more instruments were used in single-level fusions, costs to hospitals and insurance companies increased. However, hospital margins did not increase.