• Albert E Telfeian, Adetokunbo Oyelese, Jared Fridley, and Ziya L Gokaslan.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Rhode Island Hospital, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Electronic address: ATelfeian@Lifespan.org.
• World Neurosurg. 2021 Mar 1; 147: e437-e443.

ObjectiveThis study aims to report the clinical outcome of treating lumbar radiculopathy in the setting of retropulsed polyetheretherketone (PEEK) transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) cages with transforaminal endoscopic spine surgery.MethodsA retrospective study of 8 patients with lumbar radiculopathy in the setting of a retropulsed PEEK TLIF cage were included from January 2014 to January 2019. The inclusion criteria were 1) lumbar radiculopathy in the setting of a retropulsed PEEK TLIF cage causing nerve compression and 2) follow-up at least 1 year. Patients were asked to complete the following questionnaires for outcome evaluation: visual analog scales (VAS) for leg pain and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI).ResultsEight patients underwent transforaminal endoscopic surgery for treatment of radiculopathy in the setting of a retropulsed PEEK TLIF cage in the 5-year period evaluated. One year after surgery, the VAS and ODI scores showed a significant decrease: average preoperative VAS and ODI scores were 6.9 ± 1.2 and 50.5 ± 10.9, and 1-year postoperative VAS and ODI scores were 2.3 ± 1.3 and 17.3 ± 5.1.ConclusionsTransforaminal endoscopic spine surgery for the treatment of a retropulsed PEEK TLIF cage is a safe and effective approach with low morbidity and acceptable complication rates for patients with radiculopathy secondary to a retropulsed PEEK TLIF cage. Compared with a more invasive approach to removing or drilling the PEEK TLIF cage, endoscopic spine surgery could achieve a similar improvement in the patient-reported outcomes with possibly fewer complications.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

29 keywords...

hide…