Inspired Spine presented a study on the economic performance of oblique lateral lumbar interbody fusion at the Spine Summit 2017 in Las Vegas.
The Congress of Neurological Surgeons sponsors the meeting, which includes spine industry leaders and innovators. The study examined 124 surgeries, comparing OLLIF with transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion. The principle investigator was Hamid Abbasi, MD.
The researchers found:
1. OLLIF reported 56 percent reduction in surgical time when compared with TLIF. The OLLIF procedures were more than an hour shorter than TLIF.
2. The shorter operative time also led to a shorter hospital stay. TLIF patients stayed at the hospital approximately two days longer than the OLLIF patients.
3. Based on the U.S. Government Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project average costs for the procedure, OLLIF was able to provide $9,500 savings per case when compared with TLIF.
4. When taking the total U.S. spinal fusions performed last year into consideration, performing OLLIF instead of TLIF could save around $2.7 billion per year.
5. Study authors concluded hospitals that have bed constraints may become more efficient by using the OLLIF procedure.