A new study published in The Spine Journal compares transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion and posterior lumbar interbody fusion procedures to treat lumbar spondylolisthesis.
The article authors examined 192 studies and identified nine for a meta-analysis that included 990 patients; 450 patients underwent TLIF and 540 underwent PLIF. The study authors found:
1. The pooled mean difference for the visual analog scores after surgery was -0.05.
2. The complication rate overall for TLIF was 8.7 percent.
3. For PLIF, the overall complication rate was 17 percent.
4. Pooled odds ratio for complications in both procedures was 0.47.
5. Surgical time was 169 minutes for TLIF and 190 minutes for PLIF.
6. TLIF estimated blood loss was 350 mL. PLIF estimated blood loss was 418 mL.