OBJECT Surgical decompression is the intervention of choice for lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) when nonoperative treatment has failed. Standard open laminectomy is an effective procedure, but minimally invasive laminectomy through tubular retractors is an alternative. The aim of this retrospective case series was to evaluate the clinical and radiographic outcomes of this procedure in patients who underwent LSS and to compare outcomes in patients with and without preoperative spondylolisthesis. METHODS Patients with LSS without spondylolisthesis and with stable Grade I spondylolisthesis who had undergone minimally invasive tubular laminectomy between 2004 and 2011 were included in this analysis. Demographic, perioperative, and radiographic data were collected. Clinical outcome was evaluated using the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and visual analog scale (VAS) scores, as well as Macnab's criteria. RESULTS Among 110 patients, preoperative spondylolisthesis at the level of spinal stenosis was present in 52.5%. At a mean follow-up of 28.8 months, scoring revealed a median improvement of 16% on the ODI, 2.75 on the VAS back, and 3 on the VAS leg, compared with the preoperative baseline (p < 0.0001). The reoperation rate requiring fusion at the same level was 3.5%. Patients with and without preoperative spondylolisthesis had no significant differences in their clinical outcome or reoperation rate. CONCLUSIONS Minimally invasive laminectomy is an effective procedure for the treatment of LSS. Reoperation rates for instability are lower than those reported after open laminectomy. Functional improvement is similar in patients with and without preoperative spondylolisthesis. This procedure can be an alternative to open laminectomy. Routine fusion may not be indicated in all patients with LSS and spondylolisthesis.

Object Extreme lateral interbody fusion (ELIF) is a popular technique for anterior fixation of the thoracolumbar spine. Clinical and radiological outcome studies are required to assess safety and efficacy. The aim of this study was to describe the functional and radiological impact of ELIF in a degenerative disc disease population with a longer follow-up and to assess the durability of this procedure. Methods Demographic and perioperative data for all patients who had undergone ELIF for degenerative lumbar disorders between 2007 and 2011 were collected. Trauma and tumor cases were excluded. For radiological outcome, the preoperative, immediate postoperative, and latest follow-up coronal Cobb angle, lumbar sagittal lordosis, bilateral foraminal heights, and disc heights were measured. Pelvic incidence (PI) and PI–lumbar lordosis (PI-LL) mismatch were assessed in scoliotic patients. Clinical outcome was evaluated using the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and visual analog scale (VAS), as well as the Macnab criteria. Results One hundred forty-five vertebral levels were surgically treated in 90 patients. Pedicle screw and rod constructs and lateral plates were used to stabilize fixation in 77% and 13% of cases, respectively. Ten percent of cases involved stand-alone cages. At an average radiological follow-up of 12.6 months, the coronal Cobb angle was 10.6° compared with 23.8° preoperatively (p < 0.0001). Lumbar sagittal lordosis increased by 5.3° postoperatively (p < 0.0001) and by 2.9° at the latest follow-up (p = 0.014). Foraminal height and disc height increased by 4 mm (p < 0.0001) and 3.3 mm (p < 0.0001), respectively, immediately after surgery and remained significantly improved at the last follow-up. Separate evaluation of scoliotic patients showed no statistically significant improvement in PI and PI-LL mismatch either immediately postoperatively or at the latest follow-up. Clinical evaluation at an average follow-up of 17.6 months revealed an improvement in the ODI and the VAS scores for back, buttock, and leg pain by 21.1% and 3.7, 3.6, and 3.7 points, respectively (p < 0.0001). According to the Macnab criteria, 84.8% of patients had an excellent, good, or fair functional outcome. New postoperative thigh numbness and weakness was detected in 4.4% and 2.2% of the patients, respectively, which resolved within the first 3 months after surgery in all but 1 case. Conclusions This study provides what is to the authors' knowledge the most comprehensive set of radiological and clinical outcomes of ELIF in a fairly large population at a midterm follow-up. Extreme lateral interbody fusion showed good clinical outcomes with a low complication rate. The procedure allows for at least midterm clinically effective restoration of disc and foraminal heights. Improvement in coronal deformity and a small but significant increase in sagittal lordosis were observed. Nonetheless, no significant improvement in the PI-LL mismatch was achieved in scoliotic patients.

Why are people with focal epilepsy not continuously having seizures? Previous neuronal signaling work has implicated gamma-aminobutyric acid balance as integral to seizure generation and termination, but is a high-level distributed brain network involved in suppressing seizures? Recent intracranial electrographic evidence has suggested that seizure onset zones have increased inward connectivity which could be associated with interictal suppression of seizure activity. Accordingly, we hypothesize that seizure onset zones are actively suppressed by the rest of the brain network during interictal states. Full testing of this hypothesis would require collaboration across multiple domains of neuroscience. We focused on partially testing this hypothesis at the electrographic network level within 81 individuals with drug resistant focal epilepsy undergoing presurgical evaluation. We utilized intracranial electrographic resting-state and neurostimulation recordings to evaluate the network connectivity of seizure onset, early propagation, and non-involved zones. We then utilized diffusion imaging to acquire estimates of white matter connectivity to evaluate structure-function coupling effects on connectivity findings. Finally, we generated a resting-state classification model to assist clinicians in detecting seizure onset and propagation zones without the need for multiple ictal recordings. Our findings indicate that seizure onset and early propagation zones demonstrate markedly increased inward connectivity and decreased outward connectivity using both resting-state (one-way ANOVA, p-value=3.13e-13) and neurostimulation analyses to evaluate evoked responses (one-way ANOVA, p-value=2.5e-3). When controlling for the distance between regions, the difference between inward and outward connectivity remained stable up to 80 mm between brain connections (two-way repeated measures ANOVA, group effect p-value of 2.6e-12). Structure-function coupling analyses revealed that seizure onset zones exhibit abnormally enhanced coupling (hypercoupling) of surrounding regions compared to presumably healthy tissue (two-way repeated measures ANOVA, interaction effect p-value of 9.76e-21). Using these observations, our support vector classification models achieved a maximum held-out testing set accuracy of 92.0±2.2% to classify early propagation and seizure onset zones. These results suggest that seizure onset zones are actively segregated and suppressed by a widespread brain network. Furthermore, this electrographically observed functional suppression is disproportionate to any observed structural connectivity alterations of the seizure onset zones. These findings have implications for the identification of seizure onset zones using only brief electrographic recordings to reduce patient morbidity and augment the presurgical evaluation of drug resistant epilepsy. Further testing of the interictal suppression hypothesis can provide insight into potential new resective, ablative, and neuromodulation approaches to improve surgical success rates in those suffering from drug resistant focal epilepsy.