If the phrase “three or more levels of lumbar canal stenosis in a 70-year-old hypertensive diabetic” makes your pulse quicken (and not in a good way), then a new study out of China might just be worth your next OR coffee break.
Published July 14, 2025, in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, the study, “A new surgery choice of bilateral laminoplasty for symptomatic three or more-level lumbar canal stenosis in patients over 60 years old: a two-year retrospective study”, examines an alternative to the go-to heavyweight of lumbar spine surgery—posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF)—for elderly patients with complex multilevel LCS. Enter bilateral laminoplasty, a motion-preserving decompression technique that may give fusion fatigue a run for its money.
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