Conservative Treatment and Unfavorable Factors to Bone Healing of “Pre-lysis”-Stage Lumbar Spondylolysis in Adolescents

ABSTRACT

Methods@#Fifty-three patients with 57 fresh pre-lysis-stage lesions who had completed conservative treatment were included in the study (40 men, 13 women; mean age, 14.3 years). We investigated the rate of bone healing and the relationship between bone healing after conservative therapy and factors such as age, sex, vertebral level, unilateral/bilateral lesions, and presence of spina bifida occulta. @*Results@#The overall bone healing rate was 95% (54/57 lesions). Bilateral lesions had a significantly lower bone healing rate than unilateral lesions (86% vs. 100%, p=0.046). There were no statistically significant differences based on age, sex, vertebral level, or presence of spina bifida occulta. @*Conclusions@#The bone healing rate in unilateral lesions was 100%, which was significantly higher than that in bilateral lesions. It is important to detect and initiate treatment while the lesion is still unilateral, if possible.