Risk factors and treatment strategies for adjacent segment diseases / 中华骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Fusion surgery has been an effective modality for the treatment of spinal disorders for more than 100 years. With the increasing understanding of the disease and the increasing maturity of surgical techniques, lumbar fusion has become more widely performed and its efficacy has been conclusively proven. However, fusion surgery inevitably disrupts the original physiologic motion of the spine and limits segmental motion, resulting in a significant increase in disc and joint protrusion stress in adjacent segments. When a newly identified degenerative change on imaging is present in an adjacent segment or an existing degeneration is more aggravated, this is known as adjacent segment degeneration. When clinical symptoms such as pain and numbness in the lower extremities are present that are consistent with degeneration, this is known as adjacent segment disease. Real world studies (RWS) have become a major focus in medical research in recent years. Since it is closer to clinical practice and more practical for decision-making compared with randomized controlled trail (RCT), it is gaining importance in clinical practice. By searching major national and international databases, this article provides a review of risk factors as well as advances in the treatment of lumbar adjacent segment disease in RWS. According to the retrieved literature, there are many factors that contribute to the development and progression of adjacent segment degeneration and disease, which are mainly divided into patient-related factors and surgery-related factors. In general, patient age, weight, spinal-pelvic sagittal parameters, and internal diseases influence the progression of adjacent segment degeneration. Surgery-related risk factors include the number of segments operated on, the surgical approach, interference with adjacent segments, and whether the spinal-pelvicsagittal imbalance is corrected. To prevent the development of adjacent segment disease, patients can slow the progression of adjacent segment degeneration by reducing their own weight and controlling their internal diseases. The physician can also avoid the influence of surgery-related factors through adequate surgical planning and careful intraoperative management. At the same time, surgeries may be performed in patients who have developed adjacent segmental disease and for whom conservative treatment has failed. The current revision surgical approaches include endoscopic simple decompression and posterior decompression with extended internal fixation.Short-term RWS revealed that the efficacy of endoscopic treatment of adjacent spondylosis might be equivalent to re-fusion internal fixation surgery. Studies with large samples and long-term follow-up are still needed to guide the treatment of adjacent segment disease in the future, in order to improve clinical decision-making.