Objective To investigate the effect of simple vertebral canal decompression for treating degree 1 senile degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis .Methods 62 cases of degree 1 senile degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis from January 1998 to January 2012 were retrospectively analyzed .The patients were surgically treated by simple vertebral canal decompression and included 20 males and 42 females ,aged from 65-82 years(mean 68 years) ,with the disease history of 2-7 years(average 3 .3 years) .The clini-cal effects in average postoperative 2 years and 8 .2 years were evaluated by Japanese Orthopaedic Association Scores (JOA ) and Visual Analogue Scale/Score(VAS) .Results The preoperative JOA score was 9 .7 in average and the JOA scores in average post-operative 2 years and 8 .2 years were 11 .7 and 12 .8 respectively(P<0 .05);the preoperative VAS score averaged 7 .8 ,which after operation were 2 .3 and 2 .6 respectively(P<0 .05) .Complications were observed in 16 cases .4 cases accepted reoperation .Conclu-sion In the basis of the actively controlling other organ systems diseases in perioperative period ,simple vertebral canal decompression is an effective method for treating degenerative vertebral canal spondylolisthesis and can obtain the satisfactory therapeutic effect .