Table 1.

Final treatment nodes included in the network meta-analysis

Treatment node	Description
Traditional surgical approaches
Laminectomy	A type of surgery removing osseous elements (vertebrae lamina, vertebral arch, and spinous process) to provide decompression. [23, 24]
Laminectomy with fusion	A type of surgery involving the use of spinal implants (e.g. pedicle screws) to stabilize the fused segments after laminectomy. [23]
Laminectomy with Coflex	A type of surgery implanting the Coflex after laminectomy
Subtotal laminectomy	A type of surgery similar to laminectomy but preserving both facet joints as much as possible while leaving the upper part of the spinous process and lamina. [25]
Minimally invasive surgical approaches
Microscopic-assisted subtotal laminectomy	A microscopic-assisted partial laminectomy limiting the extent of bony decompression (compared with laminectomy) with or without resection of the spinous process. [24]
Endoscopic-assisted subtotal laminectomy	An endoscopic-assisted partial laminectomy limiting the extent of bony decompression (compared with laminectomy) with or without resection of the spinous process. [24]
Microscopic-assisted split–spinous process subtotal laminectomy	A type of surgery involving longitudinally splitting of the spinous process, partial laminectomy, and reconstructing/repositioning the split sections of the spinous process. [26, 27]
Microscopic-assisted laminotomy	A type of microscopic-assisted surgery removing unilateral or bilateral vertebrae lamina but leaving the spinous process intact. [23, 24]
Endoscopic-assisted laminotomy	A type of endoscopic-assisted surgery removing unilateral or bilateral vertebrae lamina but leaving the spinous process intact. [23, 24]
Microscopic-assisted split–spinous process laminotomy	A type of microscopic-assisted surgery involving longitudinally splitting the spinous process into halves with removing vertebrae lamina to provide decompression. [23, 28]
Microscopic-assisted spinous process osteotomy laminotomy	A type of microscopic-assisted surgery involving an osteotomy at the base of the spinous process with removing vertebrae lamina to provide decompression. [29]
Interspinous process spacer devices
X-stop	A titanium device, consisting of an oval titanium core that is designed to fit within the interspinous ligament, and secured within the ligament by two lateral wings. [30, 31]
Superion	A titanium device, consisting of an implant body and two cam lobes that rotate during deployment to encompass the lateral aspects of the superior and inferior spinous processes. [30, 32]
Coflex	A titanium implant that fits between the spinous processes of the lumbar spine, consisting of two components: a wing assembly and a spacer assembly. [33, 34]