ORIGINAL ARTICLE Effects of Unilateral Endoscopic Facetectomy on Spinal Stability Scott M. W. Haufe, MD and Anthony R. Mork, MD that are common in the normal aging spine.5 Thus, the Abstract: There are various definitions for spinal instability and exact method of determining spinal instability is unclear its exact clinical usefulness is uncertain. Facetectomy has been and it has been suggested that instability may not be very considered a potential source of instability via conventional helpful in clinical practice.5 Other studies have shown that approaches. Studies have suggested that if the ligament structure processes of aging such as spinal disc degeneration does of the spine is maintained then instability may not occur with an not directly correlate to mobility changes and that what endoscopic facetectomy. This study is a prospective analysis of could be defined as instability may be present in normal 10 patients who underwent unilateral endoscopic facetectomy situations.6 Therefore, even though prior data are for the treatment of severe foraminal stenosis to determine questionable about the usage of the term stability, it has whether endoscopic facetectomies result in instability. The been believed that any significant removal of the facet patients underwent pre and postsurgical x-rays that were joint is associated with some degree of instability of the evaluated via a specialized computer program that determined vertebral spine.7 Nonetheless, most of these beliefs of whether or not there was any altered mobility between the 2 sets possible instability after facetectomy were due to the of x-rays. These were compared with controls to determine extensive surgical techniques required via a conventional whether instability was present. Of the 10 endoscopic facetect- approach.8,9 Important structural ligaments that can be omy patients, none had any statistically significant change in affected with conventional facetectomy include the sagittal rotational or translational motion when compared to supraspinous, interspinous, and intertransverse ligaments controls. Thus, endoscopic removal of a unilateral facet joint along with the superficial thoracolumbar fascia and does not necessarily cause spinal instability possibly because of various interspinous muscles depending on the approach the reduction in tissue damage associated with an endoscopic and technique.10 It has been suggested that unilateral approach and the maintenance of the ligament structure of the facetectomy may not cause instability in certain situations spine. when minimal ligament damage occurs.11 This has been Key Words: minimally invasive spinal surgery, endoscopic spinal confirmed in a study that revealed that a 1-level unilateral surgery, facetectomy, foraminal stenosis, instability conventional lumbar facetectomy could be performed with minimal instability issues if care is used to preserve (J Spinal Disord Tech 2007;20:146–148) structural integrity.12 Using a conventional facetectomy with a tissue sparing approach, only one case of instability requiring fusion was noted out of 41 patients.12 pinal stability after conventional spinal surgery has It is unknown whether a minimally invasive approach, Salways been an issue with spinal surgeons. Many which has been previously defined as having an incision surgeries have been performed over the issue yet there is of less than an inch, could allow a facetectomy to be no real definition of what constitutes spinal instability.1 A performed with similar instability effects as those seen study by Pope et al2 defined instability as a loss of stiffness with a tissue sparing conventional approach since the of the spine but such a definition is too vague. One of the trauma to the ligaments and other structural elements more accepted definitions expresses a 3-subsystem that would be reduced.11,13–15 Here, we present an analysis of includes the spinal column, the spinal muscles, and the 10 patients who underwent an endoscopic facetectomy for neutral control unit.3,4 Other definitions of instability foraminal stenosis. include increased antero-posterior translation, pathologic coupled motion, increased neutral zone, or pathologic instantaneous center of rotation, but these are findings MATERIALS AND METHODS Ten patients consisting of 7 men and 3 women who required a unilateral facetectomy for unilateral foraminal Received for publication April 20, 2006; accepted July 24, 2006. spinal stenosis were selected for the study. Although From the MicroSpine Center, DeFuniak Springs, FL 32435. unilateral facetectomy is not always required for for- Reprints: Scott M. W. Haufe, MD, MicroSpine Center, 100 Coy Burgess Loop, DeFuniak Springs, FL 32435 (e-mail: Question@MicroSpine. aminal stenosis, the patients selected had severe cases that com). required such an extensive procedure and they opted Copyright r 2007 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins for the minimally invasive approach instead of a 146 J Spinal Disord Tech Volume 20, Number 2, April 2007 J Spinal Disord Tech Volume 20, Number 2, April 2007 Effects of Unilateral Endoscopic Facetectomy conventional fusion with facetectomy. The diagnosis neurologic complications. The entire procedure takes confirmed foraminal stenosis via history, physical around 1 hour. examination, magnetic resonance imaging, and selective Patients were reevaluated with the same 10-view nerve root blocks. Selective nerve root block were used spinal series 2 years after the initial surgery. No other to confirm that the patient’s pain was indeed from spinal surgeries occurred in any of these patients during the problematic nerve root. The selective nerve root this 2-year span. Ten nonsurgical patients were used as blocks involved 1% lidocaine and were deemed positive controls and 2 sets of the same 10-view spinal x-ray series if the patient’s pain was resolved after the injection were obtained on these spinal control subjects at a similar for at least 1 hour. In each patient, their pain returned 2-year period apart from each other. The spinal x-ray to their normal baseline after the injection and thus series were sent to a medical school that had developed a the injection was not deemed therapeutic, only special computer program that could analyze the x-rays diagnostic. Before surgery, patients underwent a 10-view for aberrations in spinal mobility. Because variations in lumbar spinal series that included anterior-posterior the x-ray films can occur owing to patient positioning and (AP), lateral, right and left posterior obliques, flexion, technique, the computerized program used to determine extension, right and left AP bending, L5-S1 spot, spinal instability was able to determine the changes in the and pelvis views. These same x-ray views were obtained angles of the spine associated with these human errors in each patient 2 years after the surgery. No other and thus compensate for them. The program marks spinal surgeries occurred in these individuals during the specific points on the spinal segments and can adjust for 2-year period after this endoscopic lumbar facetectomy angulations and positions of the patient and can correct surgery. for technique and position shifts. The computer program The surgery proceeded as follows: fluoroscopy was and the medical school analysis staff were blinded to used to identify the facet joint at approximately a 30- which x-ray studies were from which group of patients degree angle to the spine. At this location, a 3/4-inch since names and dates were removed. The computer incision was made and a 1.5 mm guide pin was inserted program used the angle of sagittal rotation displacement and tapped into the facet joint. The endoscopic approach and sagittal translation displacement from the extension involved a specialized 14 mm tubular retractor system to flexion films. The units for flexion-extension were given that was inserted over the guide pin to the facet joint. The in degrees, whereas the units for translation being final tube constituted the working tube and the other expressed in percent change in vertical depth of the dilating tubes were removed. Electrocautery and a vertebral body. These data are noted in Table 1 for the holmium laser were used to cauterize, coagulate, and surgical group. Although there is no perfect way to remove soft tissues over the facet joint. Once the joint was analyze instability, this method of measuring spinal identified via a 5-mm, 0-degree endoscope with a 30 times stability has been previously referenced and deemed magnification system, an electronic 12 mm drill bit acceptable for this study.16 The control group is removed the facet joint under direct fluoroscopic gui- referenced in Table 2 with the same information. dance using AP and lateral views to confirm 3 dimen- sional placement. After the 12 mm bit removed most of RESULTS the facet joint, a 6 mm electrical burr was used to grind away the excess facet bone and kerrisons (2 to 4 mm) were Of the 10 patients who underwent the unilateral used to remove the final bone edges and pieces. The entire endoscopic facetectomy, none developed any statistically facet region was removed and the patients were awake significant motion abnormalities when compared with the during the entire procedure to aid in avoiding any control group. Both sagittal translation and rotation had TABLE 1. Patients Undergoing Endoscopic Facetectomy Presurgical Patient Surgical Rotation Pretranslation No. Level (Degrees) (%) Postrotation Posttranslation 1 L5-S1 4.36 À 0.0063 5.25 0.0526 2 L4-5 1.81 À 0.0473 5.49 0.0536 3 L4-5 6.04 À 0.1152 1.8 0.0602 4 L4-5 1.79 À 0.268 À 0.71 À 0.0359 5 L4-5 10.34 0.0384 7.45 0.0961 6 L5-S1 1.12 À 0.0837 1.13 À 0.0105 7 L4-5 0.96 0.0587 5.22 0.0225 8 L4-5 8.08 0.1411 4.08 À 0.1034 9 L5-S1 0.95 À 0.1117 4.06 0.1005 10 L4-5 4.88 À 0.0302 À 0.54 À 0.0513 Information is for each patient and includes level of surgery and pre and postrotation and translation values.