ABSTRACT

Objective:

The aim of study is to investigate the complications of surgeries which were operated with instrumentation and posterior lumbar interbody fusion with the diagnosis of spinal stenosis.

Materials and Method:

Sixty patients who were diagnosed as lumbar stenosis were investigated for the study. The patients that operated with instrumentation and posterior lumbar interbody fusion technique was selected. All patients were investigated from the files and radiology archive retrospectively. Vertebrae fractures, spondylolisthesis and neoplastic operations excluded from the study.

Results:

A total of 60 patients were included in this study. Mean age of the patients was 54.3 ± 11.1 years. Forty-four patients (73.3 %) were females and 16 were males (26.7 %). All patients had spinal stenosis. Most frequent operation applied to patients was L3-4-5 Instrumentation and PLIF in 32 patients (53.3 %), followed by L2-3-4-5 Instrumentation and PLIF in 14 patients (23.3 %). Forty-three patients had no complication after the procedure (71.7 %), 6 patients had bilateral numbness (10 %), 4 patients had tural tear (6.7 %), 3 patients had bilateral radicular pain (5 %), 2 patients had dislocation (3.3 %) and 2 patiens had infection(3.3 %). When the complication rates were assessed respective to each other, proportion of bilateral numbness was the highest as 35.3 %, and proportions of infection and PLIF dislocation were the lowest as 11.7 % for each. The age distribution between genders was statistically similar (p=0.34). Likewise, the distributions of operation types (p=0.55) and complications (p=0.64) were also similar between female and male patients.

Conclusions:

PLIF allows for adequate interbody height restoration and allows for neural decompression. Neurological and paraspinal muscle injury complications due to risk of retraction on thecal sac with nerve roots and paraspinal muscles must be remembered.