ArticleBrain & spine2026
Power-drill fluoroscopy-controlled technique as an alternative to navigation-assisted pedicle screw placement: A propensity score-matched retrospective cohort study.
Article in Brain & spine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Power-drill fluoroscopy-controlled freehand (PFH) pedicle screw placement is a drill-based refinement of the freehand technique that combines fluoroscopic control with tactile feedback. Its performance in degenerative spine surgery remains underexplored. This study compared the accuracy and procedural characteristics of PFH and navigation-assisted (NA) screw placement in thoracolumbar posterior fusion. Research question: To investigate whether PFH pedicle screw placement achieves comparable accuracy to NA techniques in degenerative thoracolumbar fusion surgery. Material and methods: Adults undergoing elective thoracolumbar fusion with PFH or NA pedicle screw placement were retrospectively analyzed. Propensity score matching balanced demographic and clinical variables between groups. Screw accuracy was graded by the Gertzbein-Robbins Scale (GRS). Secondary outcomes included radiation exposure and perioperative variables. A generalized linear mixed model accounted for multiple screws per patient. Results: After matching, 35 patients per group were analyzed (PFH, 224 screws; NA, 154 screws). Satisfactory screw placement was achieved in 97.8% of PFH and 93.5% of NA screws (p = 0.02). Revision rates within 12 months were similar (5.7% vs 17.1%; p = 0.26). Radiation exposure was lower with PFH (8378 ± 5302 vs 23,793 ± 13,162 mGy cm Discussion and conclusion: In this propensity-matched analysis, PFH demonstrated accuracy comparable to NA (absolute difference 4.3 percentage points) with significantly lower patient radiation exposure. Further investigations are needed to justify the PFH method as a potential alternative in selected degenerative cases where radiation reduction is prioritized or navigation is unavailable.
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.