Minimally invasive lumbar decompression for lumbar stenosis: review of clinical outcomes and cost effectiveness.

Lumbar stenosis patients typically present with neurogenic claudication or radiculopathy. Studies have shown the benefit of surgical management of lumbar stenosis for patients who fail medical management. Surgical management traditionally involved an open laminectomy and foramenotomies. The emergence of minimally invasive spinal surgery has allowed for comparable clinical outcomes to open laminectomies, with the potential additional benefits of decreased blood loss, shorter hospital stay, decreased postoperative narcotic requirement, decreased rate of infection, and the potential benefit of decreasing the risk of postoperative instability. A shorter length of stay and faster return to work after minimally invasive lumbar decompression may result in the minimally invasive approach being more cost effective than an open approach. A literature review was performed to evaluate the clinical outcomes and cost effectiveness associated with minimally invasive decompression of lumbar stenosis.