Open Access“One and a half” minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion: single level transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion with adjacent segment unilateral laminotomy for bilateral decompression for spondylolisthesis with bisegmental stenosis
Author(s) -
Christoph Wipplinger,
Carolin Melcher,
R. Nick Hernandez,
Sara Lener,
Rodrigo Navarro-Ramírez,
Sertaç Kırnaz,
Franziska Anna Schmidt,
Eliana Kim,
Roger Härtl
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of spine surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2414-469X
pISSN - 2414-4630
DOI - 10.21037/jss.2018.10.01
Subject(s) - laminotomy , medicine , decompression , spondylolisthesis , surgery , lumbar , laminectomy , psychiatry , spinal cord
Symptomatic lumbar spondylolisthesis is commonly accompanied by spinal stenosis in multiple segments. These pathologies are routinely treated by multilevel decompression and instrumented fusion. However, it was hypothesized that a minimally invasive surgery (MIS) fusion in the unstable segment combined with a unilateral laminotomy for bilateral decompression (ULBD) in the adjacent stenotic segment is a biomechanically feasible alternative to a two-level fusion and superior to open laminectomy adjacent to a fused segment. This concept has demonstrated success in a recently published biomechanical cadaver study performed by our group. The present article offers a detailed step by step technical description for an MIS-TLIF (transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion) with adjacent ULBD.