Fourty-eight patients with lumbar spinal canal stenosis surgically treated after 1975 were reviewed. Patients were placed in the following categories: degenerative stenosis without olisthesis (22), degenerative spondylolisthesis (14), combined (7), and post-operative (5). Twenty-four patients were treated with wide laminectomy, eleven with wide fenestration, five with wide laminectomy and fusion, six with wide fenestration and fusion, and two with fusion only. Results were judged to be good in 16 patients, fair in 25, and poor in 7. The patients who showed instability on the preoperative radiographs needed spinal fusion in addition to decompressive procedure.
