Journal of neurosurgery. Spine
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Lateral transpsoas interbody fusion (LTIF) permits anterior column lumbar interbody fusion via a direct lateral approach. The authors sought to answer 3 questions. First, what is the effect of LTIF on lumbar foraminal area? Second, how does interbody cage placement affect intervertebral height? And third, how does the change in foraminal area and cage position correlate with changes in Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) scores? ⋯ Average foraminal area increased approximately 35% after cage placement without variation based on cage position. While ODI and SF-12 scores increased significantly, there was no significant association with cage position or foraminal area change, likely attributable to the multifactorial nature of preoperative pain.
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Revision lumbar fusion procedures are technically challenging and can be associated with tremendous health care resource utilization and cost. There is a paucity of data regarding specific factors that significantly contribute to increased cost of care. In light of this, the authors set out to identify independent risk factors predictive of increasing 2-year direct health care costs after revision lumbar fusion. ⋯ Revision lumbar fusion can be associated with considerable 2-year health care costs. These costs can also vary widely among patients, as evidenced by the 2.6-fold overall cost range in this series. Although comorbidities and preoperative severity of disease states contribute to cost of care, the primary drivers of increased cost include perioperative complications such as surgical site infection, return to the operating room, and readmission during the global health period. Measures focused on health service improvement will be most successful in reducing the cost of care for patients undergoing revision lumbar fusion.
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The thoracolumbar junction (T11-L2) poses an anatomical dilemma, given the presence of the lower rib cage and the diaphragm when performing anterolateral approaches. To circumvent dealing with the diaphragm, a minimally invasive lateral extracoelomic approach has been used to approach the thoracolumbar junction by mobilizing the diaphragm anteriorly. No anatomical studies have described the attachments of the diaphragm and their surgical significance during the lateral approach to the thoracolumbar spine. The objective of this study is to describe the anatomical relationship of the diaphragm in reference to the minimally invasive lateral approach to the thoracolumbar spine and its surgical significance. ⋯ The diaphragm has multiple attachments that can be categorized as anterior, lateral, and posterior. In reference to the minimally invasive lateral extracoelomic approach to the thoracolumbar junction, the surgically significant attachments are primarily to the 12th rib and transverse process of L-1.