BACKGROUND CONTEXT Surgical treatment for lumbar degenerative disc disease (DDD) remains controversial. Options include anterior lumbar interbody fusion, posterior approach fusion procedures such as posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) and posterolateral lumbar fusion (PLF), anterior and posterior lumbar fusion (APLF), and total disc replacement (TDR). However, the trends during the last de...

Low back pain (LBP) is a worldwide phenomenon. The UK studies place LBP as the largest single cause of absence from work; up to 80% of the population will experience LBP at least once in their lifetime. Most individuals do not seek medical care and are not disabled by their pain once it is managed by nonoperative measures. However, around 10% of patients go on to develop chronic pain. This revi...

abnormalities and degeneration in the intervertebral disc. The associated pathological entities include herniation of the nucleus pulposus, DDD, and segmental instability. In recent years, the diagnostic accuracy and description of these abnormalities have been aided by the development of water-soluble myelography, MR imaging, provocative discography, diagnostic blocks, and high-resolution CT s...

OBJECTIVE The object of this study was to evaluate the clinical and radiological outcomes of minimally invasive lateral lumbar interbody fusion. METHODS This study included 30 patients who underwent minimally invasive lateral lumbar interbody fusion at our hospital between May 2011 and February 2012 for the following diagnoses: degenerative disc disease, adjacent-segment degeneration, degener...

STUDY DESIGN Prospective evaluation of 10 patients undergoing minimally invasive lumbar interbody fusion for degenerative disk disease and radiculopathy. OBJECTIVE To assess the feasibility of percutaneous lumbar transfacet screw fixation in the lateral decubitus position after lateral interbody fusion. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Lumbar interbody fusion is commonly performed for the treatme...

Study Design Retrospective case series. Purpose To examine the efficacy of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for bone fusion in transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) using local bone grafting. Overview of Literature Several authors have reported the efficacy of PRP for bone union in animal models. However, the use of PRP for bone fusion in TLIF surgery has not been fully explored. Method...

Extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF) (NuVasive Inc., San Diego, CA) and direct lateral interbody fusion (DLIF) (Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Memphis, TN) are novel minimally invasive transpsoas approaches to the lumbar spine for performing interbody fusions. Advantages of interbody fusions over posterolateral fusion have been detailed and include theoretically higher fusion rates, the possibilit...

The authors review and compare posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) with transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF). A review of the literature is performed wherein the history, indications for surgery, surgical procedures with their respective biomechanical advantages, potential complications, and grafting substances are presented. Along with the technical advancements and improvements ...