Full‐Endoscopic Approach Forchronic Low Back Pain from Baastrup's Disease: Interspinous Plasty

The objective was to introduce a new endoscopic technique‐interspinous plasty for low back pain from Baastrup's disease; based on clinical manifestations, imaging findings and diagnostic test, to discuss a detailed diagnostic procedure for Baastrup's disease; and to explore the mechanism of interspinous plasty in pain relief. To our knowledge, there is no report about the results of endoscopic lumbar technique for Baastrup's disease. This study described the successful full‐endoscopic surgical treatment for Baastrup's disease, providing a brand‐new therapeutic method for patients. Clinical manifestations, imaging findings, including X‐ray, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging, and a “positive” diagnostic test with local anesthetic were used to confirm Baastrup's disease in the three included patients. The interspinous plasty procedure, which aimed to recover a physiological gap between the adjacent spinous processes, was performed by full‐endoscopic resection of marginal osteophytes. The removal of local inflamed tissue and reducing inflammation via intraoperative saline irrigation also lead to pain relief. Clinical outcomes included visual analog scale (VAS) for low back pain and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). The distance between the adjacent spinous processes was measured from the preoperative and postoperative CT scan. We calculated and recorded the difference between preoperative and postoperative measurements. Technical procedures and advantages of interspinous plasty are introduced. The three patients showed improvement in terms of the postoperative VAS of low back pain (from 8 to 2, from 7 to 1 and from 8 to 2) and ODI (from 68.9% to 33.3%, from 77.8% to 28.9% and from 71.1% to 28.9%, respectively) at the 12‐month follow‐up. Compared postoperative ODI index, the ODI index increased from 26.7% to 33.3% and from 24.4% to 28.9% in two of the cases at the 12‐month follow‐up. At 1 week, CT confirmed an obvious reduction in the marginal osteophytes between the adjacent spinous processes. Compared with those on preoperative CT images, the distance between adjacent spinous processes on postoperative CT was enlarged from 1 to 4 mm, and a repeated CT scan 3 months later reconfirmed little recrudescent osteoproliferation. In selected cases, full‐endoscopic surgical treatment for chronic mechanical back pain as part of the phenomena of Baastrup's disease may be beneficial. The operations in this study were performed under local anesthesia, with satisfactory early clinical outcomes and a low incidence of complications or adverse events. This may be a feasible therapeutic method or an alternative option for patients who cannot tolerate general anesthesia surgery.