Abstract
Background and Study Aims Spinal schwannomas are benign slow-growing tumors, and gross total resection is the
gold standard of treatment. The conventional surgical approach is laminectomy, which
provides a wide working area. Today minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is popular because
it is associated with shorter hospital stay, less operative blood loss, minimized
tissue traumas and relative postoperative pain, and, and spine surgery, avoidance
of spinal instability.
Material and Methods From January 2016 to December 2019, we operated on 40 patients with spinal intradural
extramedullary tumor (schwannoma) with laminectomy or hemilaminectomy. Baseline medical
data, including patients' sex and age, tumor location, days of postoperative bed rest,
operative time, length of hospitalization, and 1-month visual analog scale (VAS) value
were collected and analyzed. Data analysis was performed using STATA/IC 13.1 statistical
package (StataCorp LP, College Station, Texas, United States).
Results Hemilaminectomy was associated with faster operative time (p < 0.001), shorter postoperative time spent in bed (p < 0.001), and shorter hospitalization (p < 0.001). At 1-month follow-up, the mean VAS score was 4.6 (1.7) among the laminectomy
patients and 2.5 (1.3) among the hemilaminectomy patients (p < 0.001). Postoperative complications occurred in 1 (7.7%) and 7 (25.9%) patients
in the hemilaminectomy and laminectomy groups, respectively (p = 0.177).
Conclusions Unilateral hemilaminectomy has significant advantages compared with laminectomy in
spinal schwannoma surgery including shorter operative time, less time spent in bed,
shorter hospitalization, and less postoperative pain.
Keywords
hemilaminectomy - Spinal schwannomas - spinal intradural extramedullary tumors - spinal
minimally invasive approaches - laminectomy
