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Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society 2007;42(3): 184-190. |
Symptomatic Adjacent Segment Degeneration Following Posterior Lumbar Arthrodesis: Retrospective Analysis of 26 Patients Experienced in 10-year of Periods. |
Myung Hoon Shin, Kyeong Sik Ryu, Il Sup Kim, Chun Kun Park |
Department of Neurosurgery, Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea. nsdoc35@catholic.ac.kr |
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ABSTRACT |
OBJECTIVE The authors retrospectively analyzed clinical and radiographic features of patients who developed symptomatic adjacent segment degeneration (ASD) that required re-operation. METHODS From 1995 to 2004, among 412 patients who underwent posterior lumbar fusion surgery, the authors experienced twenty-six patients who presented symptomatic ASD. Records of these patients were reviewed to collect clinical data at the first and second operations. RESULTS The patients were 9 males and 17 females whose mean age was 63.5+/-8.7 years. Among 319 one segment and 102 multi-segment fusions, 16 and 10 patients presented ASD, respectively. Seventeen ASDs were noticed at the cephalad to fusion (65%), eight at the caudad (31%), and one at the cephalad and caudad, simultaneously (4%). All patients underwent decompression surgery. Nine patients underwent additional fusion surgeries to adjacent degenerated segments. In 17 patients who underwent only decompression surgery without fusion, the success rate was 82.4%. In fusion cases, the success rate was observed as 55.5%. There were no statistically significant factors to be related to development of ASD. However, in cases of multi-level fusion surgery, there was a tendency toward increasing ASD. CONCLUSION Multi-segment fusion surgery could be associated with a development of ASD. In surgical treatment of symptomatic ASD, selective decompression without fusion may need to be considered as a primary procedure, which could reduce the potential risk of later occurrence of the other adjacent segment disease. |
Key Words:
Degenerative lumbar disease; Lumbar fusion; Adjacent segment degeneration |
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