Minimally Invasive Procedure Vs Standard Open Approach For Lumbar Sympathectomy

Aim: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is chronic arterial occlusive disease of the lower extremities caused by atherosclerosis. The present study was conducted for comparing the efficacy of minimally invasive procedure vs standard open approach for lumbar sympathectomy.Materials & methods: 100 patients were enrolled in the present study (who were scheduled to undergo lumbar sympathectomy) and were divided broadly and randomly into two study groups: Group 1: Patients undergoing lumbar sympathectomy by minimal invasive procedure, and Group 2: Patients undergoing lumbar sympathectomy through standard open approach. Only those patients were included who had Ischemic rest pain that requires continuous analgesia for more than 3 weeks and Ischemic foot ulcers that failed to heal for more than 6 weeks. All the patients underwent surgical procedures according to their respective study groups. All the results were recorded in Microsoft excel sheet and were analysed using SPSS software.Results: Mean duration of analgesic consumption for controlling pain postoperatively was 3.9 weeks in group 1 while it was 3.7 weeks in group 2. Mean operative time among the patients of group 1 and group 2 was 51 minutes and 83 minutes respectively (p -value < 0.05). Incidence of complications was significantly higher among the patients of group 2 in comparison to the patients of group 1. Mean recovery time among the patients of group 1 and group 2 was 5.2 days and 7.3 days respectively (p-value < 0.05).Conclusion: Among patients undergoing lumbar sympathectomy, minimally invasive procedure is better in comparison to standard open procedure.