THERAPY FOR COMPLICATED DEGENERATIVE STENOSIS OF THE LUMBOSACRAL SPINE SEGMENT IN ELDERLY PATIENTS

The paper present a retrospective analysis of surgical treatment of 22 elderly patients aged 60 to 80 years who had complicated degenerative stenosis of lower thoracic and lumbar spine segments associated with neurological deficits ranging from mild peripheral manifestations to severe unilateral and bilateral paresis. The severity of degenerative spine lesions and compressive stenosis of spinal channel contents correlated with patients’ age and culminated in the maximal degenerative stenotic alterations, up to 5,5±0,9 cm, at the L3 to L5 level at the age of 76,5±1,4 years. Surgery performed to decompress the spinal channel and cauda equina roots and to stabilize the spine with Stryker and Fixpain transpedicular inner fixation and correction devices resulted in the regress of neurological deficits and restoration of lower limbs motor functions up to the capability of unassisted locomotion in old age.