[The surgical treatment of lumbar stenosis and its results. A series of 163 operated cases].

163 patients were operated for degenerative lumbar stenosis (only 10 did not have osteoarthrosis), following the failure of medical treatment. The surgical decompression varied according to the anatomical type of the stenosis: central, lateral or mixed. In 13 p. cent of cases, it was followed by an arthrodesis. There were no deaths. The most frequent complications were: haematoma (6 p. cent), infection (5 p. cent), aggravation of the neurological disturbance (3 cases), breeches in the dura, practically inevitable in very tight stenosis (13 p. cent) and epidural fibrosis (4 re-operations). When there is no sliding prior to the operation, the risk of aggravation or appearance of sliding in cases of spondylolisthesis is somewhat higher (6 cases out of 64). The different symptoms are unequally improved by the decompression: root pain is the best relieved (69 p. cent cure, 20 p. cent improvement) together with intermittent claudication (75 p. cent cure, 14 p. cent improvement) and, to a lesser degree, back pain (48 p. cent cure, 32 p. cent improvement). There is a possibility of recovery even in the severe forms of motor disturbance.