Considering a "Lami" Variant/Posterior Spine Surgery?

[mmglobal]

necknose,

Interesting post. I have not had time to research much, but here are a few quick thoughts.

I observed a 5-level open door laminoplasty surgery a few weeks ago. Very interesting stuff. When reading about the skip laminoplasty, it certainly makes sense to preserve as much integrity of the muscle/bone/ligament systems as possible. However there must be some trade-offs.

If you could have seen this procedure, you would not believe how much room they open up in the canal area. At 4 of the 5-levels, they were able to insert a 6mm spacer in the lamina. The amount of room added is dramatic. The ability to visualize the field, decompress, etc... is dramatic. Yes, this comes at a cost of a more invasive procedure.

I'll bet that the converse of my last statement is true as well. In the skip procedure they are fully decompressing alternating levels. If you need a lot of decompression, then the skip procedure will be too much of a compromise. That ribbon rasp tool looked very cool.

I'm sure that there are other trade-offs... this is just a quick reply. I'm totally swamped putting zeegers' party together. any chance you can come down? There may be someone flying a private plane down from the bay area???

Mark