In vitro study of biomechanical behavior of anterior and transforaminal lumbar interbody instrumentation techniques.

Objective: To study the biomechanical behavior of lumbar interbody instrumentation techniques using titanium cages as either transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) or anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF), with and without posterior pedicle fixation.

Methods: Six fresh-frozen lumbar spines (L1-L5) were loaded with pure moments of +/-7.5 Nm in unconstrained flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation.