Endoscopic Spine Surgery for the Treatment of Degenerative Lumbar Spondylolisthesis with Spinal Stenosis in Elderly Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical outcomes of endoscopic lumbar interbody fusion in elderly patients with degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis (DLS) and spinal stenosis. STUDY DESIGN: A descriptive study. Place and Duration of the Study: Department of Orthopaedics, Baoding No.1 Hospital, Baoding, China, from June 2023 to June 2024. METHODOLOGY: A descriptive review of 40 patients with single-segment DLS and spinal stenosis was carried out. Patients were classified into a control group and an observation group according to the surgical method. Perioperative indicators, pain measured using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores, and Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scores at 6 months postoperatively were used for efficacy evaluation based on the modified MacNab criteria. Lumbar MRI measured the dura mater cross-sectional area to assess the decompression effect. The t-test and chi-square (c²) test were employed to analyse the outcomes. RESULTS: Incision length, blood loss, and hospital stay were significantly reduced in the observation group (p < 0.05). At 6 months postoperatively, both groups showed significant improvements in VAS, JOA, and ODI scores compared with preoperative values (p <0.05). The observation group demonstrated significantly greater improvement than the control group (p <0.05). The excellent surgical outcomwe rate in the observation group was significantly higher than in the control group (c2 = 4.329, p = 0.037). The dura mater cross-sectional areas in the two groups significantly increased relative to preoperative measurements (p <0.05); however, these two groups did not exhibit a statistical difference (p >0.05). CONCLUSION: Spinal endoscopic surgery for elderly patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis combined with spinal stenosis has a definite therapeutic effect and has unique advantages in improving patients' symptoms and enhancing their quality of life. KEY WORDS: Endoscopic spine, Elderly, Degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis, Spinal stenosis, Clinical efficacy.