Removal of a one of the facet joints of the spinal column (partial or complete), most commonly in the lumbar spine.

Usually needed to decompress spinal nerves (decompressive laminectomy), remove far lateral disk herniations, synovial cysts or gain access to the disk space for fusions (PLIF).

An isolated unilateral facetectomy usually does not create instability, although in certain situations may necessitate a fusion.

Bilateral facetectomy and diskectomy always requires a concurrent instrumented fusion because of resultant instability.