Preservation of the supraspinous ligament for spinal stenosis: a technical note.

Laminectomies and bilateral laminotomies for spinal stenosis have been performed over a period of 16 years at the Mercy Catholic Medical Center by preserving the supraspinous ligament along with the tips of the lumbar spines. More recently, this has been done utilizing a unilateral approach. This operation is technically feasible and with practice can be done routinely for extensive spine decompression, even for spinal tumor resection or spinal fusion.