Differential Diagnosis of Skull and Spine Disorders
Posterior Lumbar Surgical Procedures
= posterior decompression + fusion
- Posterior lumbar interbody fusion
- bilateral caudad + cephalad partial laminectomies
- diskectomy
- bone graft into disk space + interbody spacer
- posterior stabilization (until bone fusion occurs)
- Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion
= lateral approach leaving midline bone structures intact- total facetectomy for access to lateral disk space
- transforaminal interbody spacers
- Posterolateral fusion
= alternative to posterior lumbar interbody fusion ← severe loss of disk space height- bone graft material placed laterally between transverse processes
- supplemented by posterior instrumentation
Anterior Lumbar Surgical Procedures
= anterior fusion for predominantly diskogenic pain without need for posterior decompression
- Anterior lumbar interbody fusion
- lower abdominal incision / retroperitoneal flank approach
- removal of degenerate disk
- spacers for anterior osseous fusion replacing disk height
- Stand-alone lumbar interbody fusion
- cage fixed to the adjacent vertebral bodies by screws