Abstract

Background: When degenerative spinal illnesses result in neuropathic backache, nerve root decompression with instrumented interbody fusion is the preferred treatment for these groups of patients.
Methods: A hospital-based, comparative, retrospective analysis of patients who had transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) with either a cage with bone graft or a stand-alone autologous morselized bone graft was conducted. The clinical and radiological outcomes of these two interbody fusion procedures were evaluated to see if there was a meaningful difference. A total of 20 patients with lumbar canal stenosis and degenerative grade 1/2 spondylolisthesis who had failed conservative management were operated on using the TLIF approach and were evaluated for postoperative improvement in the Oswestry disability index (ODI) and interbody fusion on imaging at 6 months and 1 year after surgery. Each patient's vertebral level of surgical intervention, intra-operative blood loss, and operation duration, as well as any complications, were noted.
Results: There was no significant difference in clinical or radiological result between the two modalities of interbody fusion in our study. Although the group that received morselized bone graft with cage had a somewhat better clinical outcome at 6 months, there was no meaningful difference in ODI at 1 year.
Conclusions: Based on the findings of this study, we can infer that both procedures have similar clinical and radiological outcomes, as well as similar patient satisfaction, and can be used interchangeably for interbody fusion depending on the surgeon's and patient's preferences.