Oblique lateral lumbar interbody fusion is a safe and effective procedure, according to a study in Cureus.
The study authors evaluated clinical, patient-reported and radiological outcomes from a series of 303 OLLIF procedures on 568 levels performed by the same surgeon.
Five things to know:
1. At the one-year follow-up, 5 percent of patients had mild nerve root irritation. Only one patient had neuropraxia due to weakness.
2. There was a single case of superficial wound infection and one case of bleeding into the psoas major.
3. The surgeon re-operated on 4.7 percent of patients within one year of the primary OLLIF procedure.
4. Interbody fusion was achieved in nearly all — 98.7 percent—levels.
5. The study authors conducted a literature review and found that OLLIF leads to perioperative complication outcomes, complication and fusion rates that compare favorably with similar procedures.