Journal of neurosurgery. Spine
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Low lumbar osteoporotic vertebral collapse (OVC) has not been well documented compared with OVC of the thoracolumbar spine. The differences between low lumbar and thoracolumbar lesions should be studied to provide better treatment. The aim of this study was to clarify the clinical and imaging features as well as outcomes of low lumbar OVC and to discuss the appropriate surgical treatment. ⋯ The main types of low lumbar OVC were flat-type and concave type, which resulted in neurological symptoms by retropulsed bony fragments generating foraminal stenosis and/or canal stenosis. For patients with low lumbar OVC, decompression of the foraminal and canal stenosis with short fusion surgery via posterior approach can improve neurological symptoms. Since these patients are elderly with poor bone quality and other complications, treatments for both OVC and osteoporosis should be provided to achieve good clinical outcome.
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OBJECTIVE With the recent passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, there has been a dramatic shift toward critical analyses of quality and longitudinal assessment of subjective and objective outcomes after lumbar spine surgery. Accordingly, the emergence and routine use of real-world institutional registries have been vital to the longitudinal assessment of quality. However, prospectively obtaining longitudinal outcomes for patients at 24 months after spine surgery remains a challenge. ⋯ Outcome measures obtained at 12 months postoperatively are highly predictive of 24-month outcomes, independent of the surgical procedure. CONCLUSIONS In a multiinstitutional prospective study, patient-centered measures of surgical effectiveness obtained at 12 months adequately predict long-term (24-month) outcomes after lumbar spine surgery. Patients achieving MCID at 1 year were more likely to report meaningful and durable improvement at 24 months, suggesting that the 12-month time point is sufficient to identify effective versus ineffective patient care.