INTRAOPERATIVE SPINAL STIFFNESS MEASUREMENT IN MANAGEMENT OF SPINAL CANAL STENOSIS

In this study to determine whether spine stiffness is predictive of clinical results after lumbar spinal fusion for spinal stenosis, a total of 78 patients were measured intraoperatively with Kocher clamp manual distraction technique to determine motion segment stiffness then spinal fusion was performed for any loose segment. Statistical analysis revealed that stiffness measurement correlate with clinical results of surgery. During a minimum of 2 years follow up after surgery, patients who had loose motion segment before or after decompression and were fused had the same level of satisfaction with surgical results as patients without loose segments and fusion. We concluded that intraoperative spinal stiffness measurement provide a good indicator to spine fusion after lumbar canal stenosis surgery.