Clinical evaluation of a lumbar interspinous dynamic stabilization device (the Wallis system) with a 13-year mean follow-up.

The authors determined current health status of patients who had been included in a long-term survivorship analysis of a lumbar dynamic stabilizer. Among 133 living patients, 107 (average age at surgery, 44.2 +/- 9.9 years) completed health questionnaires. All patients had initially been scheduled for decompression and fusion for canal stenosis, herniated disc, or both. In 20 patients, the implant was removed, and fusion was performed. The other 87 still had the dynamic stabilizer. Satisfaction, Oswestry disability index, visual analog scales for back and leg pain, short-form (SF-36) quality-of-life physical composite score, physical function, and social function were significantly better (p < or = 0.05) in the patients who still had the dynamic stabilization device. SF-36 scores of the fused subgroup were no worse than those reported elsewhere in patients who had primary pedicle-screw enhanced lumbar fusion. This anatomy-sparing device provided a good 13-year clinical outcome and obviated arthrodesis in 80% of patients.