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Spontaneous facet joint fusion in patients following oblique lateral lumbar interbody fusion combined with lateral single screw-rod fixation: prevalence, characteristics and significance

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Abstract

Purpose

To explore the characteristics of spontaneous facet joint fusion (SFJF) in patients after oblique lateral lumbar interbody fusion combined with lateral single screw-rod fixation (OLIF-LSRF).

Methods

We randomly selected 300 patients from 723 patients treated with OLIF-LSRF into a cross-sectional study based on the pilot study results. A novel fusion classification system was designed to evaluate the fusion status of the facet joints at three time points. Ultimately, the prevalence, characteristics, and significance of SFJF were analyzed.

Results

A total of 265 (333 levels) qualified cases were included in our study. The novel classification for SFJF has excellent reliability (kappa > 0.75). The rate of SFJF was 15.20% (45/296 levels) at 3 months postoperatively, 31.34% (89/284 levels) at 6 months postoperatively, and 33.63% (112/333 levels) at the last follow-up. The circumferential fusion rate was 31.53% (105/333 levels) at the last follow-up. The location of SFJF was mostly on the right facet joint (P < 0.001), and the rate of SFJF increased significantly from 3 to 6 months after the operation (P < 0.001). The average age of patients with SFJF was older than that of patients without SFJF (P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in Visual Analog Scale or Oswestry Disability Index scores between patients with and without SFJF.

Conclusion

In the OLIF-LSRF procedure, SFJF occurs mostly at 3–6 months postoperatively, especially in elderly patients and at the right facet joint. OLIF-LSRF has the potential for circumferential fusion.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank AJE (www.aje.com) for English language editing and all the patients for their data in this study. And we are grateful to the staff of our department.

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Author notes

  1. Xingxiao Pu and Xiandi Wang have contributed equally to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopedics, Orthopedic Research Institute, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, 37# Wuhou Guoxue Road, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China

    Xingxiao Pu, Xiandi Wang, Tianhang Xie, Zhiqiang Yang, Long Zhao, Run Lin & Jiancheng Zeng

  2. Department of Pain Management, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China

    Hongfei Nie

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  1. Xingxiao Pu
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  2. Xiandi Wang
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  8. Jiancheng Zeng
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Contributions

XP: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review and editing. XW: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Project administration, Visualization, Writing—review and editing. HN: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing—review and editing. TX: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Software. ZY: Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Software. Writing—review and editing. LZ: Data curation, Formal analysis, Software, Writing—review and editing. RL: Data curation, Investigation, Software. JZ: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiancheng Zeng.

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Conflict of interest

All authors state that we have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee on Biomedical Research West China Hospital of Sichuan University (approval number: 2020–554).

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Pu, X., Wang, X., Nie, H. et al. Spontaneous facet joint fusion in patients following oblique lateral lumbar interbody fusion combined with lateral single screw-rod fixation: prevalence, characteristics and significance. Eur Spine J 31, 3580–3589 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-022-07424-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-022-07424-3

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