Lateral Lumbar Interbody Fusion

Abstract

Lateral lumber interbody fusion is an important technique in the continually growing field of minimally invasive spine surgery. While it had previously been utilized in the early twentieth century for the treatment of traumatic injuries and Pott’s disease, the current revolution of minimally invasive surgery has seen a recurrence of this approach and expansion of its clinical applications. Though this approach was largely abandoned in the late twentieth century for anterior and posterior approaches due to a high morbidity, a combination of improved technology and understanding of lumbar plexus anatomy has allowed for its resurgence. Clinical applications of the retroperitoneal trans-psoas and pre-psoas approaches are continually expanding and frequently include scoliosis, neoplasms, traumatic injuries, and a variety of degenerative disorders. Here we describe the clinical utility of this approach, review the pertinent clinical anatomy, and describe the procedure in detail.