Technical considerations in transforaminal endoscopic discectomy with foraminoplasty for the treatment of spondylolisthesis: Case report

Abstract

Degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis is the slipping of one ertebra past its normal alignment to its adjacent vertebra as a esult of the degenerative wear of the facet joint that normally elps keep the two vertebrae aligned. The resulting misalignment an result in canal and foraminal narrowing. Patients can complain f mechanical back pain, claudication symptoms, and radicular ymptoms. For patients with radicular complaints that result from arrowing of the foramen or a combination of foraminal narrowng and disc bulging the only surgical options have been lumbar aminectomy and lumbar fusion. The authors present here a case eport describing an ultra-minimally invasive endoscopic transoraminal technique in an awake patient utilizing a posterolateral pproach for (1) removal of the ventral superior articular process foraminoplasty), (2) transforaminal intracanal access for removal f a lumbar disc herniation, and (3) reduction of the superior endlate to treat lumbar radicular symptoms that resulted from a grade I spondylolisthesis.