Review of published case series on minimally invasive resection of synovial cysts through tubular retractor.
| Present study | Sandhu et al, 2004 | Sehati et al, 2006 | James et al, 2012 | Sukkarieh et al, 2015 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patients characteristics | |||||
| n of patients | 53 | 17 | 19 | 16 | 13 |
| Mean age | 63 | 64 | 64 | 67 | 66 |
| % of synovial cyst at L4-5 | 75% | 82% | 84% | 56% | 69% |
| % of Grade 1 spondylolisthesis | 34% | 47% | 11% | 56% | 31% |
| Operative Data | |||||
| Approach | Ipsilateral | Ipsilateral | Ipsilateral | Contralateral | Contralateral |
| Operative time (min) | 182 | 97 | 158 | 105 | 123 |
| Average blood loss (ml) | 41 | 35 | 31 | <40 | 44 |
| % patients discharged within 24 hours from surgery | 80% | 82% | 68% | 50% | >50% |
| Mean length of follow-up (months) | 14.8 ± 33.7 | 13 ± 11.0 | 16 (range 4-29 mo) | 14 ± 9.4 | 20.8 ± 16.9 |
| Outcome (Macnab modified criteria) | |||||
| Excellent | 70% | 82% | 53% | 69% | 69% |
| Good | 19% | 12% | 42% | 31% | 8% |
| Fair | 9% | 0% | 5% | 0% | ? * |
| Poor | 2% | 6% | 0% | 0% | ? * |
| Complications | |||||
| Intraoperative CSF leak | 4% | 6% | 11% | 12.5% | 0% |
| Postoperative symptomatic csf leak | 2% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Postoperative instability requiring lumbar fusion | 6% | 6% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Recurrence or new synovial cyst at the same level | 4% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
↵* Authors reported patients as having persistent pain without specifying if the pain improved or stayed the same.