• Ali Shirzadi, Kurtis Birch, Doniel Drazin, John C Liu, and Frank Acosta.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA.
• J Clin Neurosci. 2012 Jul 1; 19 (7): 1022-5.

AbstractThe direct lateral interbody fusion (DLIF), a minimally invasive lateral approach for placement of an interbody fusion device, does not require nerve root retraction or any contact with the great vessels and can lead to short operative times with little blood loss. Due to anatomical restrictions, this procedure has not been used at the lumbosacral (L5-S1) junction. Lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (LSTV), a structural anomaly of the lumbosacral spine associated with low back pain, can result in a level being wrongly identified pre-operatively due to misnumbering of the vertebral levels. To our knowledge, use of the DLIF graft in this patient is the first report of an interbody fusion graft being placed at the disc space between the LSTV and S1 via the transpsoas route. We present a review of the literature regarding the LSTV variation as well as the lateral placement of interbody fusion grafts at the lumbosacral junction.Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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