A study presented at the Society for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Annual Forum last year examined the clinical results and utility of extreme lateral interbody fusion for revision procedures.
The study authors examined 78 XLIF surgeries performed in 2013, including 22 revision cases. All patients underwent decompression surgeries and 19 cases included the percutaneous pedicle screw system; another three cases were performed with the open method. Seventeen of the revision surgeries were caused by posterior lumbar interbody fusion procedures or posterolateral fusions.
The study authors found:
1. Patients who underwent the XLIF procedure for low back pain reported improved visual analog scale scores from 58 to 25; at the same time, in the control group, patients reported score improvement from 71 to 36.
2. Roland-Morris disability questionnaire scores improved from 10.8 to 6.7 in the XLIF patients. In the control group, the score improved from 14.7 to 8.4.
3. Patients were more satisfied in the XLIF group; the patient satisfaction rate was 76.1 percent in the XLIF group, compared with 66.5 percent in the control group.
4. Blood loss was 28.6 mL in the XLIF group and 141 mL in the control group.
5. Operative time was 55 minutes in the XLIF group and 152 minutes in the control group.
6. The spinal canal area increased 149 percent in the XLIF group and 176 percent in the control group.
7. Neither group reported major complications; however there were six cases of thigh problems in the XLIF group. The control group had three dural tear cases.
"Revision surgery using XLIF and PPS can perform minimally invasive interbody fusion and avoid direct decompression," concluded the study authors.