Risk factors for adjacent segment pathology requiring additional surgery after single-level spinal fusion: impact of pre-existing spinal stenosis demonstrated by preoperative myelography.

Purpose: We determined the incidence of and risk factors for clinical adjacent segment pathology (C-ASP) requiring additional surgeries among patients previously treated with one-segment lumbar decompression and fusion surgery.

Methods: We retrospectively analysed 161 consecutive patients who underwent one-segment lumbar decompression and fusion surgery for L4 degenerative spondylolisthesis. Patient age, sex, body mass index (BMI), facet orientation and tropism, laminar inclination angle, spinal canal stenosis ratio [on myelography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)], preoperative adjacent segment instability, arthrodesis type, pseudarthrosis, segmental lordosis at L4-5, and the present L4 slip were evaluated by a log-rank test using the Kaplan-Meier method.

Analysis of the risk factors for severity of neurologic status in 216 patients with thoracolumbar and lumbar burst fractures.

Study Design: A retrospective, consecutive case series.

Objective: To determine the risk factors that have a significant correlation with the severity of neurologic impairment in thoracolumbar and lumbar burst fractures.

Summary Of Background Data: The correlation between spinal canal stenosis due to bony fragments and the severity of neurologic deficits in thoracolumbar and lumbar burst fractures remains controversial.