High-grade spondylolisthesis in young patients: Long-term results of in situ fusion

The purpose of this long-term follow-up of 38 of 40 consecutive patients was to evaluate the results of uninstrumented in situ fusion for high-grade isthmic spondylolisthesis three decades after surgery. The mean age at surgery was 14 (range 9-24) years. The first of four studies evaluated clinical outcome, function, work status, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) after in situ fusion in relation to age-matched Swedish population data. The second study evaluated effects on sagittal balance after in situ fusion. The third study evaluated adjacent segment disk degeneration after in situ fusion. The fourth study evaluated self-imageand HRQoL after in situ fusion in relation to healthy controls.The main findings were that (1) young patients fused in situ for highgrade isthmic spondylolisthesis have long-term HRQoL similar to the general Swedish population and controls matched for age and gender, (2) signs of non-compensated sagittal imbalance were observed only ina few individuals whereas compensated sagittal balance was the norm, (3) there was no correlation between any radiographic sagittal balance parameter and HRQoL outcome, (4) there was only a minor reduction inadjacent segment disk height which had no impact on HRQoL outcome, and (5) the only patient reported outcome measure indicating a detrimental effect at long-term follow-up was self-assessed trunk appearance which was slightly negatively affected.