title: Endoscopic treatment of lumbar arachnoiditis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The diagnosis of lumbar arachnoiditis remains complex and often inconclusive. Using the technique of lumbar subarachnoidal endoscopy (thecaloscopy), the pathology can be identified and the patient treated with long-term effects on the symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  Endoscopic operations were performed on 23 patients suffering from varying symptoms with an enlarged lumbar subarachnoidal space. Having confirmed the diagnosis of lumbar arachnoiditis, a number of endoscopic operations ranging from adhesiolysis to subarachno-epidurostomy were carried out.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Radicular symptoms in lumbar arachnoiditis were successfully relieved by various endoscopic dissection techniques, such as restoration of the improved CSF flow by subarachno-epidurostomy along the rootlet. This has been identified as one of the causal factors of the clinical symptoms. In cases where lumbar pain persists in spite of a previous thecaloscopy, further treatment with a lumboperitoneal shunt device has proved most successful.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Paracelsus Hospital, Zwickau, Germany. dr.jan-peter.warnke@pk-mx.de
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Warnke
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mourgela
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001100:Arachnoiditis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008161:Lumbosacral Region; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D044583:Neuroendoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D013346:Subarachnoid Space