Purpose To evaluate whether the contralateral radiating pain improved after unilateral decompression and minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) in the patients with bilateral radiating pain due to degenerative lumbar disease.
Materials and Methods Patients with the degenerative lumbar disease who underwent unilateral minimally invasive TLIF and were followed for more than 1 year were included. Clinically, low back pain and radiating pain on the dominant symptom side and the contralateral side were evaluated by the visual analogue score (VAS), and the Oswestry disability index (ODI) score was also evaluated.
Results ODI and VAS of low back pain and radiating pain were effectively reduced in a total of 57 cases. Thirty cases having bilateral radiating pain, among these patients, unilateral decompression was performed in 15 cases and bilateral decompression thru unilateral approach in 15 patients. In unilateral decompression group, radiating pain on the dominant symptom side, and radiating pain on the contralateral side were also improved at the final followup. In 15 cases who underwent bilateral decompression, radiating pain on the dominant symptom side and the contralateral side were improved at the final follow-up. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of preoperative ODI, VAS of low back and radiating pain.
Conclusions Minimally invasive TLIF via unilateral approach with or without contralateral decompression showed good clinical results in patients having unilateral or bilateral radiating pain. Minimally invasive TLIF could be an useful option even if there is bilateral radiating pain in degenerative lumbar disease.
