ArticleBrain & spine2025
Stand-alone extreme lateral interbody fusion (stand-alone XLIF) to treat radicular symptoms in patients with lumbar degenerative scoliosis: A monocentric observational study.
Article in Brain & spine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF) is commonly used for scoliosis and spondylolisthesis in conjunction with posterior spinal fixation. Stand-alone XLIF may serve as an intermediate strategy for radicular symptoms in neuroforaminal or spinal canal stenosis with severe coronal imbalance, avoiding extensive posterior fixation in frail patients. This study evaluated its efficacy in treating radicular symptoms in degenerative scoliotic patients without posterior instrumentation. Material and methods: We retrospectively analyzed 19 patients who underwent stand-alone XLIF and dorsal decompression if required between January 2021-June 2024 for degenerative stenosis due to thoracolumbar scoliosis or listhesis with coronal deformity. Outcomes included symptom relief, revision surgery and radiological features like foraminal height restoration. We correlated initial diagnosis and fused levels with success rates to identify predictive factors. Results: Patients ranged from 65 to 86 years, 47 % were male and 53 % female. Most (42.1 %) underwent single-level fusion; 31.6 % had up to three levels fused. Radicular symptom relief was achieved in 52.6 % of patients following stand-alone XLIF. An additional 36.8 % experienced symptom relief after secondary dorsal decompression resulting in an overall relief rate of 89.5 %. Two patients (10.5 %) required secondary posterior instrumentation. Complications included retroperitoneal hematoma and cage dislocation. Discussion and conclusions: After stand-alone XLIF, 89.5 % of patients achieved pain relief. This procedure addresses neuroforaminal stenosis via indirect decompression and supports secondary fusion, reducing the need for extensive corrective spondylodesis. It is a viable option for frail patients with degenerative scoliosis and radicular symptoms. However, no long-term follow-up was performed and conclusions regarding durability are limited.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.