Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia
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Extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF) is an alternative to standard posterior approaches for achieving fusion in the lumbar spine. It allows exposure of the lateral aspect of the lumbar disc through a lateral approach with the possibility to insert a wide footprint interbody cage as a stand-alone procedure or associated with a uni- or bilateral percutaneous fixation. This is a retrospective series of 20 consecutive patients operated with a XLIF procedure from 2014 to 2015. ⋯ The XLIF procedure accomplishes a secure and effective interbody fusion. This approach allows for an indirect decompression of neural structures by restoring foramen dimensions and disc space height, leading to an improvement of symptoms. Furthermore, XLIF seems to improve segmental sagittal balance.