RESULTS: There were 27 patients with 30 segments of surgery. They were 12 males and 15 females with an average age of 58.81±8.1. There was significant improvement in VAS for lower back pain from 7.11±1.31 to 3.67±1.3, VAS for leg pain from 6.81±2.19 to 1.59±1.89, ODI from 26.41±8.95 to 13.69±8.34, and JOA score from 7.63±2.87 to 13.5±1.73. A-P diameter increased 134%, lateral diameter increased 120%, lateral recess depth increased 166%, disc height increased 126%, foraminal height increased 124%, spinal canal area increased 30%. The p-values were all <0.001. The average hospital stay was 6.79±3.01 days. Complications included 1 pedicle screw malformation, 1 ALL avulsion fracture, 1 abdominal herniation, 1 venous damage, 1 failure.
CONCLUSION: XLIF surgery presents a favorable option for patients with lumbar spinal stenosis. This is a minimally invasive surgical method that reduces pain, reduces bleeding, and is effective in indirectly decompressing the spinal canal both clinal and imaging.
METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on post-bariatric surgery patients who underwent laparoscopy for diagnosis and treatment of chronic abdominal pain at a single academic center. Only patients with both negative preoperative CT scan and upper endoscopy were included.
RESULTS: Total of 35 post-bariatric surgery patients met the inclusion criteria, and all had history of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Twenty out of 35 patients (57%) had positive findings on diagnostic laparoscopy including presence of adhesions (n = 12), chronic cholecystitis (n = 4), mesenteric defect (n = 2), internal hernia (n = 1), and necrotic omentum (n = 1). Two patients developed post-operative complications including a pelvic abscess and an abdominal wall abscess. Overall, 15 patients (43%) had symptomatic improvement after laparoscopy; 14 of these patients had positive laparoscopic findings requiring intervention (70% of the patients with positive laparoscopy). Conversely, 20 (57%) patients required long-term medical treatment for management of chronic abdominal pain.
CONCLUSION: Diagnostic laparoscopy, which is a safe procedure, can detect pathological findings in more than half of post-bariatric surgery patients with chronic abdominal pain of unknown etiology. About 40% of patients who undergo diagnostic laparoscopy and 70% of patients with positive findings on laparoscopy experience significant symptom improvement. Patients should be informed that diagnostic laparoscopy is associated with no symptom improvement in about half of cases.