• Yusuke Dodo, Ichiro Okano, Neil A Kelly, Henryk Haffer, Maximilian Muellner, Erika Chiapparelli, Jennifer Shue, Darren R Lebl, Frank P Cammisa, Federico P Girardi, Alexander P Hughes, Gbolabo Sokunbi, and Andrew A Sama.
• Orthopaedic Surgery, Spine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 E 70th st., New York, NY, 10021, USA.
• Eur Spine J. 2023 Jun 1; 32 (6): 200320112003-2011.

PurposeThere are reports that performing lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) in a prone, single position (single-prone LLIF) can be done safely in the prone position because the retroperitoneal organs reflect anteriorly with gravity. However, only a few study has investigated the safety of single-prone LLIF and retroperitoneal organ positioning in the prone position. We aimed to investigate the positioning of retroperitoneal organs in the prone position and evaluate the safety of single-prone LLIF surgery.MethodsA total of 94 patients were retrospectively reviewed. The anatomical positioning of the retroperitoneal organs was evaluated by CT in the preoperative supine and intraoperative prone position. The distances from the centre line of the intervertebral body to the organs including aorta, inferior vena cava, ascending and descending colons, and bilateral kidneys were measured for the lumbar spine. An "at risk" zone was defined as distance less than 10 mm anterior from the centre line of the intervertebral body.ResultsCompared to supine preoperative CTs, bilateral kidneys at the L2/3 level as well as the bilateral colons at the L3/4 level had statistically significant ventral shift with prone positioning. The proportion of retroperitoneal organs within the at-risk zone ranged from 29.6 to 88.6% in the prone position.ConclusionsThe retroperitoneal organs shifted ventrally with prone positioning. However, the amount of shift was not large enough to avoid risk for organ injuries and substantial proportion of patients had organs within the cage insertion corridor. Careful preoperative planning is warranted when considering single-prone LLIF.© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

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