Contralateral facet-sparing sublaminar endoscopic foraminotomy for the treatment of lumbar lateral recess stenosis: technical note

Lumbar lateral recess stenosis that results from a degenerative bulging of the disc and overgrowth of the facet is a very common cause for lumbar radiculopathy in the elderly. The standard surgical treatment for symptomatic lumbar lateral recess stenosis often requires a laminectomy or hemi-laminectomy and medial facetectomy which can further destabilize a pathological motion segment. The authors present here a novel technique for contralateral endoscopic access to the lateral recess pathology that is truly minimally invasive and spares most of the facet joint complex: 6 patient cases are described where lateral recess stenosis pathology was accessed from a contralateral sublaminar endoscopic approach.