Introduction: In the geriatric population, pain with sciatic irradiation requires a differential diagnosis to enable a distinction to be made mainly between a herniated disc, lateral recess stenosis or lumbar stenosis. In addition, in many cases the degenerative problems are often associated with lumbar listhesis or instability. Furthermore, these patients present very diverse associated cardiovascular, pulmonary or metabolic pathologies which can make surgery complicated and, above all, prolong post-operative recovery, as well as increasing morbidity and mortality.
Patients and methods: We reviewed a group of 50 patients aged between 70 and 87 who had been submitted to surgery between 1997 and 2003; 27 were females and 23 males. 76% of them presented associated systemic pathologies and 22% had a history of previous spinal surgery. In 15 cases clinical symptoms were gait disorders involving claudication, there were three cases of paraparesis with cauda equina syndrome, 19 lumbagos with bilateral sciatica and 16 cases of lumbago with unilateral sciatica. Unilateral decompression hemilaminectomy was performed in 16 patients (group I) with microdiscectomy in 13 cases, laminectomy of one or several vertebrae (group II) was carried out in 17 patients and another 17 patients were submitted to decompression laminectomy plus arthrodesis with transpedicular instrumentation (group III).
Results: Overall a significant improvement was observed in 86% of patients. Detected complications involved two serious deep infections (4%), one of which was secondary to cerebrospinal fluid fistula, and the other occurred in an instrumented patient. No instabilities secondary to the laminectomy were observed in non-instrumented patients. No intraoperative anaesthetic or surgical complications were produced. Patients are followed up simultaneously during the post-operative period by both Internal Medicine and Neurosurgery.
Conclusions: In the geriatric population there is a high incidence of degenerative problems, not only involving canal stenosis but also herniated discs. Surgical intervention must be the least aggressive possible, bearing in mind that a laminectomy does not presuppose post-surgical stability. The associated pathologies presented by these patients make a good immediate post-operative follow-up indispensable if morbidity and mortality rates are to be reduced.