ArticleNeurosurgical review2017
The 'Lumbar Fusion Outcome Score' (LUFOS): a new practical and surgically oriented grading system for preoperative prediction of surgical outcomes after lumbar spinal fusion in patients with degenerative disc disease and refractory chronic axial low back pain.
Article in Neurosurgical review, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Identifying preoperative radiographic metrics to guide surgical selection in lumbar spondylolisthesis and stenosis.North American Spine Society journal · 2025Article
- Multicenter external validation of prediction models for clinical outcomes after spinal fusion for lumbar degenerative disease.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2024Article
- The Differences on the Fatty Infiltration of Paraspinal Muscles between Single- and Multiple-level Intervertebral Disc Degeneration in Patients with Lumbar Disc Herniation.Orthopaedic surgery · 2024Observational
- Type 2 sclerotic Modic change affect fusion result in patients undergoing PLIF with pedicle screw instrumentation: a retrospective study.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2021Article
- SpineCloud: image analytics for predictive modeling of spine surgery outcomes.Journal of medical imaging (Bellingham, Wash.) · 2020Article
- Surgical outcomes of full endoscopic spinal surgery for lumbar disc herniation over a 10-year period: A retrospective study.PloS one · 2020Article
- Effects of release and decompression techniques on nerve roots through percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy on patients with central lumbar disc herniation.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2017Article
- Minimally invasive transaxial lumbosacral interbody fusion: a ten year single-centre experience.International orthopaedics · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In order to evaluate the predictive effect of non-invasive preoperative imaging methods on surgical outcomes of lumbar fusion for patients with degenerative disc disease (DDD) and refractory chronic axial low back pain (LBP), the authors conducted a retrospective review of 45 patients with DDD and refractory LBP submitted to anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) at a single center from 2007 to 2010. Surgical outcomes - as measured by Visual Analog Scale (VAS/back pain) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) - were evaluated pre-operatively and at 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year post-operatively. Linear mixed-effects models were generated in order to identify possible preoperative imaging characteristics (including bone scan/99mTc scintigraphy increased endplate uptake, Modic endplate changes, and disc degeneration graded according to Pfirrmann classification) which may be predictive of long-term surgical outcomes . After controlling for confounders, a combined score, the Lumbar Fusion Outcome Score (LUFOS), was developed. The LUFOS grading system was able to stratify patients in two general groups (Non-surgical: LUFOS 0 and 1; Surgical: LUFOS 2 and 3) that presented significantly different surgical outcomes in terms of estimated marginal means of VAS/back pain (p = 0.001) and ODI (p = 0.006) beginning at 3 months and continuing up to 1 year of follow-up. In conclusion, LUFOS has been devised as a new practical and surgically oriented grading system based on simple key parameters from non-invasive preoperative imaging exams (magnetic resonance imaging/MRI and bone scan/99mTc scintigraphy) which has been shown to be highly predictive of surgical outcomes of patients undergoing lumbar fusion for treatment for refractory chronic axial LBP.
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