Objective: The purpose of this study is to document the incidence of vascular complications during anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) in 212 consecutive patients treated at the Scripps Clinic and determine what factors adversely affected outcome.
Methods: We reviewed the prospectively maintained database of all ALIF procedures performed at Scripps Clinic between August 2004 and June 2009. All procedures were performed by a spine surgeon in conjunction with a vascular surgeon who performed the exposure portion of the operation, and protected the vessels from injury during the instrumentation phase of the operation.