Abstract
Study Design A design-agnostic standardized effect meta-analysis of 48 randomized, prospective, and retrospective studies on clinical outcomes with spinal endoscopic and interspinous process spacer (IPS) surgery.
Objective The study aimed to provide reference set of Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and visual analog scale (VAS) effect size data for back and leg pain following endoscopic and IPS decompression for lumbar herniated disc, foraminal, or lateral recess spinal stenosis.
Background Mechanical low back pain following endoscopic transforaminal decompression may be more reliably reduced by simultaneous posterior column stabilization with IPS.
Methods A systematic search of the PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from 1 January 2000 to 2 April 2020, identified 880 eligible endoscopy and 362 IPS studies varying in design and metrics. The authors compared calculated standardized effect sizes (Cohen’s d) for extracted ODI, VAS-back, and VAS-leg data.
Results The pooled standardized effect size combining the ODI, VAS-back, and VAS-leg data for the total sample of 19862 data sets from the 30 endoscopy and 18 IPS was 0.877 (95% CI = 0.857–0.898). When stratified by surgery, the combined effect sizes were 0.877 (95% CI = 0.849–0.905) for endoscopic decompression and 0.863 (95% CI = 0.796–0.930; P = 0.056) for IPS implantation. The ODI effect sizes calculated on 6462 samples with directly visualized endoscopic decompression were 0.917 (95% CI = 0.891–0.943) versus 0.798 (95% CI = 0.713–0.883; P < 0.001) with indirect IPS decompression (P < 0.001). The VAS-back effect sizes calculated on 3672 samples were 0.661 (95% CI = 0.585–0.738) for endoscopy and 0.784 (95% CI: 0.644–0.923; P = 0.187) for IPS. The VAS-leg effect sizes calculated on 7890 samples were 0.885 (95% CI = 0.852–0.917) for endoscopic decompression and 0.851 (95% CI = 0.767–0.935; P = 0.427).
Conclusion Lumbar IPS implantation produces larger reduction in low back pain than spinal endoscopy. On the basis of this meta-analysis, the combination of lumbar transforaminal endoscopy with simultaneous IPS has merits and should be formally investigated in higher grade clinical studies.
Clinical Relevance Meta-analysis on the added clinical benefit of combining lumbar endoscopic decompression with an interspinous process spacer.
Level of Evidence 2.
Footnotes
Funding The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests The authors report no conflicts of interest related to this work.
Disclosure The authors report no financial disclosures related to this article.
Disclaimer This manuscript is not meant for or intended to endorse any products or push any other agenda other than the associated clinical outcomes with endoscopic spine surgery. The motive for compiling this clinically relevant information is by no means created and/or correlated to directly enrich anyone due to its publication. This publication was intended to substantiate contemporary endoscopic spinal surgery concepts to facilitate technology advancements.The views expressed in this editorial represent those of the authors and no other entity or organization. The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
- This manuscript is generously published free of charge by ISASS, the International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery. Copyright © 2022 ISASS. To see more or order reprints or permissions, see http://ijssurgery.com.
In this issue
Jump to section
Related Articles
Cited By...
- No citing articles found.