Does 360° lumbar spinal fusion improve long-term clinical outcomes after failure of conservative treatment in patients with functionally disabling single-level degenerative lumbar disc disease? Results of 5-year follow-up in 75 postoperative patients

摘要

BackgroundSurgical treatment of patients with mechanical degenerative disc disease has been controversial, but improvements in clinical outcomes have been shown in properly selected patients with disease-specific diagnoses, with fusion arguably now becoming the “gold standard” for surgical management of these patients. No published study thus far has been designed for prospective enrollment of patients with specific inclusion/exclusion criteria in whom at least 6 months of conservative therapy has failed and who are then offered a standardized surgical procedure and are followed up for 5 years.