Indications, feasibility safety and efficacy of dorsal rhizotomy at the level of the conus medullaris (conus deafferentation) in individuals with spinal cord injury.

Study design: Retrospective non-controlled intervention study.

Objectives: To assess indications, feasibility, safety and efficacy of dorsal rhizotomy at the level of conus medullaris (conus deafferentation - CDAF) in individuals with spinal cord injury/disease (SCI/D).

Setting: Two specialized tertiary German centers for spinal cord injuries.

Methods: In addition to a detailed description of the surgical procedure (including two technical variants: hemilaminectomy and osteoplastic laminotomy), an analysis of the surgical reports on intra- and postoperative complications and an evaluation of the pre- and postoperative paraplegiologic and neuro-urologic parameters of SCI/D patients with CDAF are presented.

Results: A total of 30 patients, 6 of them women, 22 with complete, 8 with incomplete SCI/D underwent CDAF. The most common indications were therapy-refractory detrusor overactivity, spasticity of the lower limbs and autonomic dysreflexia, usually with several simultaneous indications.Except for one antibiotic-treated wound infection, no severe CDAF-associated complications were documented. Urodynamic parameters (maximum detrusor pressure, maximum cystometric capacity) improved significantly (p < .001). In addition, all clinical targets (autonomic dysreflexia, spasticity triggered by bladder and bowel dysfunction, recurrent urinary tract infections, urinary incontinence) were also significantly improved.Quality of life (SCI-QoL-BDS) was significantly improved (p < .001) from 10 (IQR 6-16) to 17 (IQR 9.75-21), while neurogenic bowel dysfunction (NBD) score did not significantly change.

Conclusions: The present study identified different indications for the use of CDAF that can be performed safely and efficiently with very few intraoperative and postoperative complications. We see a high potential in this method for the improvement of the paraplegiological and neuro-urological therapy spectrum.