Long-term Quality of Life after Fusion of the Ventral Thoracic and Lumbar Spine

Abstract

Background Cage implantations and autologous pelvic bone grafts are common surgical procedures to fuse the spine in cases of spinal disorders such as traumatic fractures or degenerative diseases. These surgical methods are designed to stably readjust the spine and to prevent late detrimental effects such as pain or increasing kyphosis. Benefits of these surgical interventions have been evaluated, but the long-term well-being of patients after the respective treatments has not yet been examined. This study was designed to evaluate the clinical outcome for patients who received iliac crest or cage implantations.

Material and Methods Forty-six patients with traumatic fractures after they obtained an anterior fusion in the thoracic or lumbar spine (12 cages; mean age: 54.08 years; 34 pelvic bone grafts; mean age: 42.18 years) were asked to participate in the survey using a precast questionnaire according the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) Spine Score. Twenty-nine of them provided the data requested.

Results Evaluation of the VAS scores of the patients, reporting at least 1 year after the surgery, revealed that cage implantations led to significantly better results with respect to all aspects of their daily life such as pain sensing, capability to undertake physical activities and exercise as compared with patients with autologous pelvic bone graft. Patients with autologous pelvic bone graft treatment reported a particularly poor overall satisfaction level concerning their long-term well-being.

Conclusions Patients with cage implantation reported a higher degree of long-term well-being. The data provide evidence for a positive impact on the postsurgery quality of life after cage implantation.

Keywords

clinical outcome - spine surgery - cage implantation - autologous tricortical pelvic bone graft

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

The present study was approved by the ethics committee of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (approval number: AN 10/9/19). Written informed consent will be obtained from all participants.

Availability of Data and Material

The datasets supporting the conclusions of this article are included within the article (and its additional files).

Authors' Contributions

Conceptualization: LW, SS, and WL. methodology: LW, SS, and WL. validation: KJ and LW. formal analysis: KJ, LW, and SS. investigation: KJ. resources: SS and WL. data curation: KJ. writing: original draft preparation—KJ; review and editing—KJ, SD, SO, PJR, SS, LW, and WL. visualization: KJ. supervision: LW and WL. project administration: SS and LW. All the authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Informed Consent

Additional informed consent was obtained from all individual participants for whom identifying information is included in this article.

Note

The study was performed according to the CONSORT guidelines.

Publikationsverlauf

Eingereicht: 10. Februar 2021

Angenommen: 25. Juli 2021

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
22. November 2021

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