Postoperative Complications Within the First Year After Extreme Lateral Interbody Fusion: Experience of the First 108 Patients.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective chart review. OBJECTIVE: To determine complications within the first year after undergoing extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: There are a growing but limited number of reports in the literature regarding early postoperative complications after XLIF. METHODS: We performed a retrospective chart review of perioperative complications of a case series of the first 108 patients to undergo XLIF at our institution between 2007 and 2009. We also recorded estimated blood loss, surgical time, and hospital length of stay for each procedure. RESULTS: There were 25 complications (23%) overall in patients who underwent the XLIF procedure. Four patients (3.7%) experienced major complications including: vertebral body fracture, contralateral nerve root injury, dense quadriceps paresis, and persistent stenosis. Three of these patients underwent revision surgery. There were 21 minor (19.4%) complications the vast majority of which consisted of approach-related thigh pain and/or paresthesias that all ultimately resolved. CONCLUSIONS: Transient ipsilateral thigh numbness, pain, and/or hip flexor weakness is a frequent postoperative finding most commonly when the L4-L5 level is instrumented. Dense femoral nerve palsy is a debilitating complication that may occur despite intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring. It should be noted that this retrospective study may underreport the true incidence of complications among these patients.

Fibular allograft after anterior cervical corpectomy: long term follow-up.

The purpose of this study was to provide clinical and radiographic evaluation after a minimum of two years in patients who had an anterior cervical corpectomy and a fibular allograft strut. Nineteen patients returned for a follow-up visit which included independent radiographic evaluation as well as completing a Visual Analogue Scale and Oswestry and Short-Form 36 questionnaires. The categories of fusion were as follows: 1) definitely fused (84%) 2) questionably fused (11%) 3) definitely not fused (5%). The average VAS was 29 mm (range 0-85). The Oswestry Back Scores showed relatively low levels of significant pain with an average score of 29 (range 0-73). Anterior cervical corpectomy followed by an allograft fibular strut provides for relatively high rates of arthrodesis without severe loss of height or sagittal alignment at long term radiographic follow-up.