The prevalence and impact of sarcopenia on degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis

Aims The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of sarcopenia and to examine its impact on patients with degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (DLSS). Patients and Methods This case-control study included two groups: one group consisting of patients with DLSS and a second group of control subjects without low back or neck pain and related leg pain. Five control cases were randomly selected and matched by age and gender (n = 77 cases and n = 385 controls) for each DLSS case. Appendicular muscle mass, hand-grip strength, sit-to-stand test, timed up and go (TUG) test, and clinical outcomes, including the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores and the EuroQol EQ-5D were compared between the two groups. Results The prevalence of sarcopenia, as defined by hand-grip strength, was significantly higher in the DLSS group (24%) when compared with the age- and gender-matched control group (12%) (p = 0.004). In the DLSS group, the sarcopenia subgroup demonstrated inferior results for the TUG test and ODI scores when compared with the non-sarcopenia subgroup (p = 0.006 and p = 0.039, respectively) after adjusting for age and gender. Conclusion This study demonstrated a higher prevalence of sarcopenia in patients with DLSS and highlighted its negative effect on clinical outcomes. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2016;98-B:1093–8.