Placement of Surgical Spinal Cord Stimulation Leads Using Spinal Process Splitting Laminotomy: Technical Note

Abstract

Spinal cord stimulation has become an established method within the therapy of chronic pain allowing for significant pain relief. Surgical leads usually must be implanted via a surgical procedure involving unilateral or bilateral muscle detachment and partial laminectomy. We present the application of a novel minimal invasive microsurgical approach for lead placement, which combines the beneficial advantages of anatomic midline lead placement while preserving the midline structures, avoiding muscle detachments, and thus ensuring spinal stability: spinal process splitting laminotomy. The spinal process splitting laminotomy technique can be successfully applied to introduce the surgical leads for spinal cord stimulation.