The Clinical Outcome of Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion and Laminectomy for Single-Level Lumbar Canal Stenosis with Grade 1 and 2 Spondylolisthesis

Lower back pain is a common cause of disability that affects mobility and quality of life in both adult and elderly patients. Initial management of lower back pain includes anti-inflammatory drugs, physiotherapy, analgesics, and epidural steroid infiltration. Surgery is indicated only for those patients who develop refractory back pain radiculopathy with or without weakness, and when multiple trials of conservative management failed. The two main approaches to surgical intervention include decompression (laminectomy) and decompression with fusion (TLIF).

The study was done under the department of orthopedics at SRG hospital Jhalawar (Rajasthan, IN) between May 2019 and November 2022. In our study, we compared the clinical outcome of TLIF and laminectomy for single-level lumbar canal stenosis with grade 1&2 spondylolisthesis. 40 patients with Single-Level Lumbar Canal Stenosis with Grade 1&2 Spondylolisthesis were divided into 2 equal groups. Patients in both groups were followed up for 2 years.

The ODI scores improved significantly postoperatively. Modified Macnab criteria, suggest the outcomes rated as excellent/good rate of 90% in TLIF and 85% in laminectomy.

We evaluated that TLIF procedures are associated with slightly more significant improvement in clinical outcomes in all of the scoring systems that were applied, TLIF provides early ambulation but higher cost of treatment and longer hospital stay in comparison to laminectomy. Laminectomy procedures are associated with less economic burden, lesser hospital stays, less blood loss, and less surgical duration than TLIF.