Staged surgery for tandem cervical and lumbar spinal stenosis: Which should be treated first?

Abstract

First-stage surgery for the cervical stenosis significantly lowers the need of the second-stage surgery. In contrast, if lumbar stenosis was treated first, a dramatic exacerbation of the symptoms related to the cervical stenosis can occur soon. Therefore, treatment of cervical stenosis first seems to be more appropriate. These slides can be retrieved under Electronic Supplementary Material.