Objective:

Acute/subacute osteoporotic vertebral collapses (OVCs) in the lower lumbar spine with neurological compromise, although far less well documented than those in the thoracolumbar junction, may often pose greater treatment challenges. The authors clarified the utility of 3 familiar combined techniques of minimally invasive surgery for this condition as an alternative to the corpectomy/expandable cage strategy.

Methods:

This report included the authors’ first 5 patients with more than 2 years (range 27-48 months) of follow-up. The patients were between 68 and 91 years of age, and had subacute painful L4 OVC with neurological compromise and preexisting lumbar spinal stenosis. The authors’ single-stage minimally invasive surgery combination consisted of the following: step 1, balloon kyphoplasty for the L4 OVC to restore its strength, followed by L4-percutaneous pedicle screw (PPS) placement with patients in the prone position; step 2, tubular lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) at the adjacent disc space involved with endplate injury, with patients in the lateral position; and step 3, supplemental PPS-rod fixation with patients in the prone position.

Results:

Estimated blood loss ranged from 20 to 72 mL. Neither balloon kyphoplasty-related nor LLIF-related potentially serious complications occurred. With CT measurements at the 9 LLIF levels, the postoperative increases averaged 3.5 mm in disc height and 3.7 mm in bilateral foraminal heights, which decreased by only 0.2 mm and 0 mm at the latest evaluation despite their low bone mineral densities, with a T-score of -3.8 to -2.6 SD. Canal compromise by fracture retropulsion decreased from 33% to 23% on average. As indicated by MRI measurements, the dural sac progressively enlarged and the ligamentum flavum increasingly shrank over time postoperatively, consistent with functional improvements assessed by the physician-based, patient-centered measures.

Conclusions:

The advantages of this method over the corpectomy/expandable cage strategy include the following: 1) better anterior column stability with a segmentally placed cage, which reduces stress concentration at the cage footplate-endplate interface as an important benefit for patients with low bone mineral density; 2) indirect decompression through ligamentotaxis caused by whole-segment spine lengthening with LLIF, pushing back both the retropulsed fragments and the disc bulge anteriorly and unbuckling the ligamentum flavum to diminish its volume posteriorly; and 3) eliminating the need for segmental vessel management and easily bleeding direct decompressions. The authors’ recent procedural modification eliminated step 3 by performing loose PPS-rod connections in step 1 and their tight locking after LLIF in step 2, reducing to only once the number of times the patient was repositioned.