A new study published in Spine examines the national trends for degenerative spondylolisthesis surgical intervention.
The researchers examined the National Inpatient Sample database for patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis that underwent lumbar fusion from 2001 to 2010. The researchers found:
1. There were 48,911 degenerative spondylolisthesis surgical procedures identified, representing 237,383 procedures.
2. The patient percentage for these procedures increased:
• Posterolateral fusion
• Posterolateral fusion with anterior lumbar interbody fusion
• Anterior lumbar interbody fusion
3. The percentage of patients who underwent posterior interbody fusion with posterior instrumentation and posterolateral fusion with posterior interbody fusion decreased over time.
4. The total charges were less on average and the length of stay at the hospital was shorter for patients who underwent posterolateral fusion when compared with the other procedures. The patients undergoing PLF were also older than patients undergoing the other procedures on average.
5. The procedure type varied by geographic region, teaching hospital versus non-teaching hospital and the size of the hospital.
6. The patients who had PLF with posterior interbody fusion or anterior lumbar interbody fusion had higher mortality risk than patients who had posterolateral fusion.
7. The patients were more likely to have complications for ALIF+PLF, P/TLIF+PLF, ALIF and P/TLIF than if they had posterolateral fusion.