Journal of Spine Practice (JSP)

Extreme Lateral Interbody Fusion: An Observational Study of Functional and Radiological Outcome

Dana Abdel Hafeez — 2023-11-20

Introduction: Extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF) constitutes a minimally invasive procedure employed to address a spectrum of conditions including degenerative disc disorders, trauma, infections, and deformities. Despite its potential, there exists a scarcity of studies exploring perioperative functional and radiological outcomes. This prospective observational study seeks to address this gap by reporting these outcomes in patients treated at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSHRC) over a mean follow-up period of 5 years.

Methods This case series amassed baseline patient data, encompassing gender, age, body mass index (BMI), American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) classification, operated level, and posterior fixation type. Primary outcome measures encompassed the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Roland-Morris Disability Index (RMDI), Euro-Qol (EQ)-5D, visual analog scale (VAS), and EQ-5D index scores. Additionally, the study delved into secondary outcomes encompassing radiological parameters such as sagittal balance, lumbar lordosis, sacral slope, pelvic tilt, and pelvic incidence.

Results: The study embraced 51 patients, comprising 9 females and 42 males, with a mean age of 58.6 years and a mean BMI of 29.3. The patients were followed for an average of 5.2 years. Stratification according to ASA classification revealed that 11.8% of patients were classified as ASA I, 52.9% as ASA II, and 35.3% as ASA III. The levels of operation included 60.8% at L4-L5, 33.3% at L3-L4, and 5.9% at L2-L3. The fixation techniques employed encompassed 58.8% bilateral and 41.2% unilateral approaches. The analysis of the primary clinical outcomes unveiled statistically significant enhancements in ODI, RMDI, EQ-5D VAS, and EQ-5D index scores. While lumbar lordosis registered a significant decrease, radiological parameters indicated non-significant shifts in pelvic incidence, pelvic tilt, and sacral slope.

Conclusion The XLIF procedure emerges as an efficacious and minimally invasive avenue for managing degenerative disc disorders. The reported functional and radiological outcomes prove satisfactory. However, while demonstrably effective, the generation of clinical recommendations necessitates the compilation of results from randomized clinical trials.

Correlation of Lumbar Spine Fat Thickness and Surgical Site Infection in Degenerative Lumbar Spine Surgery

Sami AlEissa — 2023-11-20

Introduction: Surgical site infection (SSI) is a serious and common complication following any surgery. Patientsundergoing lumbar surgery have a higher risk for SSI. Therefore, it is essential to accurately identifythe risk factors of SSIs to prevent them. There is an insufficient number of studies internationally andonly one to our knowledge nationally that studied the correlation between lumbar fat thickness andSSI in patients undergoing lumbar spine surgery. Our aim was to identify the correlation betweenlumbar fat thickness and SSI and determine its predictive value compared to other risk factors inpredicting the incidence of SSI.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study involved all patients aged 18 and above who underwent primary elective degenerative lumbar spine surgery in National Guard Health Affairs (NGHA) from 2016 to 2020 at King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All trauma and oncology cases, patients with previous spine surgery, non-instrumented cases, and emergency cases without preoperative radiological images were excluded. The pre-operative and post-operative measurements were assessed using the sagittal MRI images on the T1 view to measure the fat length of the lumbar spine from L2 to S1. Two observers evaluated the films, and the average measurement was documented for each level.

Results: 151 patients were included in our study, four of whom developed SSI. When comparing the demographics of both groups, BMI was found to be a significant variable between both groups, with a P-value of 0.013. However, there was no significance regarding age, gender, DM, HTN, steroid use, and level of stay for each group. Furthermore, there was no significance in all vertebrae levels except for L4 fat thickness, which was significantly higher in the SSI group with a P value of 0.0264.

Conclusion: Surgical site infection (SSI) is a serious and common complication following any surgical operation. Patients undergoing lumbar surgery have a higher risk for SSI. In this study, we concluded that an increased L4 fat thickness was a significant predictor of SSI.

Traumatic C2-C3 Coronal Dislocation with Vertebral Artery Injury: Case Report and Literature Review

Abdulhadi Algahtani — 2023-11-20

Introduction: The coronal subluxation of C2-C3 (lateral leisthesis or non-hangman fracture) is extremely rare and difficult to manage. In this paper, we report a case of a 21-year-old male who came to the ER after a motor vehicle accident (MVA) with C2-C3 lateral leisthesis and, surprisingly, mild neurological symptoms.

Method: This systematic review was conducted following the recommendations of the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta‐analyses (PRISMA) checklist. On January 1, 2022, a comprehensive electronic search was conducted through Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science databases to retrieve original studies.

Results: Seven articles were found reporting on non-hangman traumatic C2/C3 subluxation, with only two cases reporting coronal subluxation or lateral listhesis of C2 over C3. The first case was reported by Rajasekaran et al. Singh reported the second case. Both cases were unilateral facet dislocations with no radiological evidence of intervertebral disc disruption or herniation. We will report the third case in the literature of a non-hangman C2/C3 coronal dislocation. The patient underwent intraoperative manual traction under continuous neurophysiology monitoring. After the satisfactory reduction, fixation was carried out using lateral mass and pars screws from C1 to C3. Postoperatively, the patient recovered well, showed no signs of motor impairment during examination, and was discharged on the fifth day.

Conclusion The impact of cervical spine injury is tremendous at every level. Management of cervical spine dislocation injury is full of controversies. The C2/C3 traumatic coronal translation with no disc involvement and unilateral facet dislocation may have a better outcome.

The 7th Saudi Spine Society Annual Conference Proceedings in November 2023 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abdulkarim Al Rabie — 2023-11-20

The Saudi Spine Society’s (SSS) 7th annual conference will be hosted in Riyadh November 17th - 19th, 2023 and is expected to have more than 550 attendees worldwide. The first day will include seven workshops covering spine diseases and management, including physical therapy, pain management, surgical treatment, evolving technology, and innovation in spine care and research. In the morning, three workshops will be conducted. These workshops will be about ultrasoundguided interventions as a treatment for common spine problems and intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM). The remaining workshops will be held in the afternoon. They will be about innovative techniques and technologies in spine surgery, neuro life-cervical spine trauma, clinical neurodynamics for the neuromusculoskeletal system and the essentials of writing medical research papers.

This will be followed by two days of the main conference with several local, regional and international speakers. The keynote speaker will be Prof. Khahled Kebaish, who will speak about adult deformity surgery. Also, 45 lectures, including several keynotes from national and international leaders in spine, and 24 peer-reviewed abstracts will be presented.

The conference halls will include new technologies and the latest surgical and nonsurgical equipment updates.

Acknowledgement to Reviewers 2023

JSP Editorial Board — 2024-02-20

This is an annual reviewer acknowledgement by the journal's editorial board to thank and acknowledge the journal reviewers for their time and efforts.