Interspinous implant in lumbar spinal stenosis: A prospective cohort

Lumbar spinal stenosis is a narrowing of spinal canal or neural foramina producing root ischaemia and neurogenic claudication^[1-3]. Both the neural canal and foramen are narrowed with the spine in extension and opened in flexion. Patients are usually sixty years or over and present with unilateral or bilateral leg pain with or without back pain. The pain is worse on walking and if the patient is upright and relieved by sitting or bending forward^[1-3]. With increasingly ageing population this is a common problem and difficult to deal with as many of the elderly patients have associated co-morbidities making them unsuitable for conventional decompressive surgery^{[4, 5]}. Although lumbar spinal stenosis is one of the most frequent indications for spinal surgery in patients over 65 years of age^[7], deciding the most appropriate procedure is a challenge to the clinicians. X-STOP interspinous implant is a titanium device. It was developed to prevent extension and also increase the dimension of spinal canal and neural foramina^[5]. We are reporting the clinical outcome and patient satisfaction following indirect decompression with X-STOP.