Seventy-two patients with lumbar spinal canal stenosis had wide laminectomy in our hospital from 1975 to 1985. Fifty-eight patients of seventy-two were examined in this study with assessment of treatment for low back pain by Japanese Orthopaedic Assosiation and radiographs. The patients were divided into two groups; the first group with posterolateral fusion and the second group without. We have adopted posterolateral fusion with wide laminectomy for the patients that have instability of lumbar spine and/or spondylolisthesis. In this study, the results between the two groups showed no differences. Poor results were coursed by narrowness of laminectomy and severe instability of another lumbar lesion that became worse after posterolateral fusion.
