Surgical versus nonsurgical management of lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis based on spinal canal cross-sectional area

Abstract

Disability and pain associated with lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis (LDS) result in a significant burden on both the healthcare costs and patients’ quality of life. Currently, there exists controversy regarding employment of either nonsurgical management (NSM) or surgical management (SM) in a clinical setting. Spinal canal cross-sectional area (SCA) has been an important morphological parameter for the analysis of LDS. However, there is lack of research about the comparative value of NSM and SM according to SCA. Moreover, previous research have not yet evaluated the clinical most suitable cutoff values of SCA. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effective of NSM and SM for LDS using SCA as an objective morphological parameter. The axial T2 magnetic resonance imaging images were obtained from each patient. We collected SCA samples from 149 patients with LDS. 72 patients underwent SM and the rest did NSM. We measured SCA at the L4/5 LDS on magnetic resonance imaging using a picture archiving and communications system. We measured SCA at the intervertebral disk posterior border, turning down to reach the facet joint side on the opposite edge at the L4/5 level. The average SCA value was 114.34 ± 48.11 mm2 in the NSM group and 69.88 ± 27.87 mm2 in the SM group. Therefore, the SM group had considerably lower SCA (P < .001). In view of the effectiveness of SCA as a prediction factor of surgical option, Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis show the optimal cutoff value for SCA as 83.21 mm2, with 70.8% sensitivity, 71.4% specificity, and an area under the curve of 0.80 (95% CI, 0.73–0.87). The narrower the SCA, the higher the probability of SM. Thus, it is proposed that to evaluate surgical decision making, the pain physician should carefully inspect the SCA.