Steve J. Fineberg, MD, and Kern Singh, MD, partnered with researchers Sreeharsha Nandyala and Miguel Pelton to conduct a study on the learning curve for minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion that was published recently in The Spine Journal.
The researchers examined the first 100 consecutive cases of MIS TLIF for the senior author. The patients undergoing revision or multilevel surgeries were excluded, leaving 65 consecutive patients. The researchers compared the first 33 cases with the last 32 patients to evaluate the learning curve.
The researchers found:
• Longer duration of anesthesia for the first group;
• More estimated blood loss in the first group;
• Two cases of complications in the first cohort of radiographic pseudarthrosis;
• Two cases of pseudarthrosis and one case of early surgical site infection in the second group;
• A negative correlation between surgical date and time, estimated blood loss, duration of anesthesia and intravenous fluids using Pearson's correlation coefficient.
As a result, the researchers concluded MIS TLIF is "technically difficult," although operative time and proficiency improved with understanding the technique.
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