• Alice Maria Santagostino, Delia Cannizzaro, Fanny Soekeland, Stefano Mancin, and Beatrice Mazzoleni.
• Department of Neurology, IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, Milan, Italy.
• World Neurosurg. 2023 Jun 20.

BackgroundDegenerative spondylolisthesis is a disease characterized by the displacement of a vertebra above the underlying vertebra. Lumbar arthrodesis is currently the most frequently performed surgical option for treatment due to the use of various approaches and techniques. The disease is characterized by low back pain, a clinical and public health problem, which in addition to having a socio-economic burden, severely affects functional status, quality of life (QoL), activity impairment, and health services. The study aims to investigate the benefits, in terms of pain, disability, andQoL, of lumbar arthrodesis surgery in patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis, at the latest follow-up.MethodsA systematic literature review registered in PROSPERO (ID: CRD42022379242), was conducted in the databases of: Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science. The key words used were as follows: "spondylolisthesis", "arthrodesis", "degenerative", "quality of life", "pain", "patient reported outcome", and "disability".ResultsA total of 26 articles were included. Significant differences were found between the preoperative and postoperative evaluation of the outcomes considered, in particular: pain (MD = -6.74; SD = 2.83; 95% CI: -8.01 to -5.46), low back pain (MD = -3.35; SD = 3.27; 95% CI: -3.61 to -3.10), lower limb pain (MD = -3.81; SD = 3.80; 95% CI: -4.10 to -3.51), disability (MD = -23.75; SD = 19.68; 95% CI: -25.26 to -22.23) and QoL (MD = 0.21; SD = 0.24; 95% CI: 0.19 to 0.23).ConclusionsThe results show significant improvement in all measured variables, demonstrating that there are different surgical treatments to cure degenerative spondylolisthesis. However, residual pain impacting the QoL remains, regardless of the technique used. Therefore, the development of personalized pain management for patients with residual chronic pain is indicated.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

7 keywords...

hide…