Segmental lordosis in lumbar stabilization in patients with degenerative pathology: a non-systematic literature review

Objective. To compare the capabilities of the most common open and minimally invasive TLIF techniques in the correction of segmental lordosis in patients with degenerative diseases of the lumbar spine, based on a non-systematic literature review.

Material and Methods. Study design: non-systematic structured literature review. Articles published for the last 5 years were searched using the following keywords: degenerative, lumbar open mis TLIF, segmental restoration, segmental lordosis, degenerative, spine, TLIF.

Results. Seventeen sources that met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Among the included original studies, a large variability in the corrective capabilities of open and minimal TLIF was revealed - the achieved values of segmental lordosis/amount of correction can differ by more than 4 times among authors.  A number of reasons were identified influencing this but not mentioned in systematic reviews: lack of proper preoperative examination of patients and planning of intervention, ambiguous intraoperative technique for performing correction, different initial values of the segmental angle (kyphosis), and lack of standardized technique for measuring angular parameters.

Conclusion. The corrective possibilities of open and minimally invasive TLIF still need to be clarified. The wide variation of segmental lordosis values in existing articles makes it difficult for an outside observer to correctly interpret the results and requires carefully designed meticulous studies.

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