PLF versus TLIF in the treatment of degenerative lumbar scoliosis / 中华骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To compare the safety and efficacy of posterolateral lumbar fusion (PLF) and transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) in the treatment of degenerative lumbar scoliosis (DLS).Methods Forty DLS patients with Cobb angles of 20 to 60 degrees were divided randomly into PLF and TLIF groups.Operative time,intraoperative blood loss,imaging results,and clinical outcomes were compared.Results Complete information was available in 37 patients,including 18 patients in the PLF group and 19 in the TLIF group.There were significant differences between two groups with regard to the operative time (P=0.002) and the intraoperative blood loss (P=0.048).The incidence of early complications in the 2 groups was 11.1％ and 26.3％.There was no significant difference in the recovery rates of the Cobb angle and the spinal coronal balance between two groups.However,the recovery rates of the lumbar lordotic angle and spinal sagittal balance were significantly different between two groups (36.7％ vs.62.5％ and 44.8％ vs.64.1％,respectively).In various domains of SRS-22,the scores for pain and satisfaction with treatment in TLIF was better that those in PLF groups.There was no significant difference in ODI score between two groups.Conclusion TLIF helps to improve lumbar lordosis and sagittal balance,which leads to better clinical outcomes.For patients without significant loss of lumbar lordosis and with good spinal sagittal balance preoperatively,PLF is still an option.