Author(s)

Hamdy Mohammed Behairy

Department of Neurosurgery, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

An aggressive separation and prolonged overstretching of the paraspinal muscles in the posterior midline approach during lumbar non fusion dynamic stabilization in cases of spondylolisthesis resulting from pars interarticularis fracture may result in postoperative flat back deformity and intractable chronic pain. It is hypothesized that utilizing Wiltse paraspinal inter-muscular approach for this purpose may result in reduction of operative time, protection of integrity, vascularity, nerve supply and strength of paraspinal muscles, shortening of hospitalization and minimizing development of chronic postoperative back pain. So, I have performed this prospective descriptive study that involved 24 patients having single level lumbar instability at L4-5 or L5-S1 levels. All patients were operated upon using Wiltse minimal access posterolateral surgical technique for non-fusion dynamic stabilization. The final results revealed that males were 66%, females were 33% and ages were 42 ± 6 years. Trauma was reported in 12%. Low back pain and tenderness were reported in 100% and root affection reported in 25%. Plain X-ray and MRI were done in 100% and C.T. was done in 8% of cases. Level L4-5 was affected in 17% while level L5-S1 was affected in 83%. Anterolisthesis “grades 0” was found in 8%, grades 1 in 88% and retrolisthesis in 4% of cases. Operative time was 1 hour ± 10 min., blood loss was 60 ± 20 ml., patients ambulation was after 6 - 8 hours, hospital stay was 12 - 24 hours. None of cases were complicated with infection, screw loosening, or fixation system break. Back pain VAS diminished from 7 preoperative to 5 in 2^nd day, then became 4 by 1 week, 3 by 1 month and 0 by 6 months. It was concluded that utilizing Wiltse approach for posterolateral lumbar stabilization minimizes tissue damage and improves the speed of recovery and outcome.

Lumbar Spine Instability, Posterolateral Wiltse Approach, Minimal Access Lumbar Stabilization

Behairy, H. (2018) Utilizing Wiltse Approach for Minimal Access Posterolateral Lumbar Stabilization. Open Journal of Modern Neurosurgery, 8, 101-108. doi: 10.4236/ojmn.2018.81008.