Laminotomy for Spinal Stenosis Can Be a Better Option than Laminectomy

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Find out if you're a candidate for a minimally invasive alternative to open neck or back surgery

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Laminotomy for Spinal Stenosis Can Be a Better Option than Laminectomy

If you’ve worked your way through a laundry list of conservative treatments for spinal stenosis and have found no relief, you may be considering surgery. While there are several procedures that can be very effective in reducing your pain, you may want to consider laminotomy for spinal stenosis. This procedure can often provide the same relief as a laminectomy—one of the most common stenosis surgeries—without some of the associated risks. The basic difference between the two procedures is this: during a laminectomy the entire lamina, which is a bony plate on each vertebra that protects the spine, is removed to create more space and relieve pressure; a laminotomy only removes part of it. By leaving a portion of the lamina, the affected vertebra stays strong. A laminectomy, on the other hand, often weakens the vertebra enough to require a spinal fusion. Spinal fusion joins the affected vertebra with the one next to it with metal implants and bone grafts to make it more stable.

Fusion comes with many risks including:

Infection
Immobility that causes pain and pressure in a different part of the spine
Rejection of the bone graft

All of this can be avoided if you choose laminotomy for your spinal stenosis treatment. And if you choose to have your laminotomy at Laser Spine Institute, you’ll experience even more benefits. That’s because we use an endoscopic technique that greatly reduces tissue damage when compared to traditional open back surgery. Our procedure is so gentle that it requires only local anesthesia and IV sedation. It’s also an outpatient procedure, and our patients are up and walking within hours of surgery. However, our patients tell us that perhaps the great benefit is that this procedure is highly effective. In fact, more than 85% of our patients report that it reduces their symptoms.

If you’d like more information about this procedure, contact LSI today. We’ll review your MRI or CT scan for free.

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