Objective:

To evaluate the clinical efficacy of oblique lateral interbody fusion combined posterior percutaneous pedicle screw fixation in the treatment of single segment lumbar tuberculosis.

Methods:

Patients who underwent surgical treatment for single segment lumbar tuberculosis from 2015 to 2018 in our department were retrospectively included in this study. The included patients were divided into two groups, namely oblique lateral interbody fusion combined percutaneous pedicle screw fixation (OLIF) group and traditional posterior transforaminal or transpedicular approach debridement and pedicle screws fixation (PTA) group, according to the surgical methods. Outcomes including operative time, operative blood loss, hospital stay, visual analogue scale (VAS) score, Oswestry disability index (ODI), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C reactive protein (CRP), Cobb angle correction and loss, bone fusion time, ASIA grade and complications were all recorded and compared.

Results:

A total of 60 patients were included in this study, involving 23 patients in the OLIF group and 37 patients in the PTA group. The OLIF group had less operative time, blood loss and shorter hospital stay compared with the PTA group (P<0.05). Both the two groups achieved significant improvements in ESR, CRP and ASIA grade at the last follow-up (P<0.05), but no significant differences were found between them (P>0.05). There were no significant differences in Cobb angle correction and loss between the two groups (P>0.05), but the bone graft fusion time of the OLIF group was significantly shorter than the PTA group (P<0.05). The two groups achieved similar improvement in VAS score and ODI at 12 months postoperative and the last follow-up, however, OLIF group had a lower VAS score and ODI at 1 month, 3 months and 6 months postoperative (P<0.05). No significant difference was found in complications between the two groups (P>0.05) and all patients were cured after active treatment.

Conclusions:

Both OLIF and PTA can achieve satisfactory clinical efficacy in the surgical treatment of single segment lumbar TB, but OLIF has the advantages of less surgical trauma, faster postoperative recovery and shorter bone fusion time.