Lordosis distribution index in short-segment lumbar spine fusion – Can ideal lordosis reduce revision surgery and iatrogenic deformity?

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Objective: The demand for spinal fusion is increasing, with concurrent reports of iatrogenic adult spinal deformity (flatback deformity) possibly due to inappropriate lordosis distribu-tion. This distribution is assessed using the lordosis distribution index (LDI) which describes the upper and lower arc lordosis ratio. Maldistributed LDI has been associated to adjacent segment disease following interbody fusion, although correlation to later-stage deformity is yet to be assessed. We therefore aimed to investigate if hypolordotic lordosis maldistribu-tion was associated to radiographic deformity-surrogates or revision surgery following instrumented lumbar fusion. Methods: All patients undergoing fusion surgery (≤ 4 vertebra) for degenerative lumbar diseases were retrospectively included at a single center. Patients were categorized according to their postoperative LDI as: “normal” (LDI 50–80), “hypolordotic” (LDI < 50), or “hyper-lordotic” (LDI > 80). Results: We included 149 patients who were followed for 21 ± 14 months. Most attained a normally distributed lordosis (62%). The hypolordotic group had increased postoperative pelvic tilt (PT) (p < 0.001), pelvic incidence minus lumbar lordosis (PI–LL) mismatch (p < 0.001) and decreased global lordosis (p = 0.007) compared to the normal group. Survival analyses revealed a significant difference in revision surgery (p = 0.03), and subse-quent multivariable logistic regression showed increased odds of 1-year revision in the hy-polordotic group (p = 0.04). There was also a negative, linear correlation between preoperative pelvic incidence (PI) and postoperative LDI (p < 0.001). Conclusion: In patients undergoing instrumented lumbar fusion surgery, hypolordotic lor-dosis maldistribution (LDI < 50) was associated to increased risk of revision surgery, increased postoperative PT and PI–LL mismatch. Lordosis distribution should be considered prior to spinal fusion, especially in high PI patients.

Original languageEnglish
JournalNeurospine
Volume18
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)543-553
Number of pages11
ISSN2586-6583
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the Korean Spinal Neurosurgery Society.

    Research areas

  • Adult spinal deformity, Ideal lordosis, Lordosis distribution, Lumbar spine, Spine fusion

ID: 285518347