← Return to Has anyone had experiences with XLIF? Extreme Lateral Interbody Fusion

Discussion
cira3 avatar

Has anyone had experiences with XLIF? Extreme Lateral Interbody Fusion

Spine Health | Last Active: 8 hours ago | Replies (9)
Comment receiving replies
Profile picture for jlssurplus @jlssurplus

Same boat here. Foramonal Stenosis from adult degenerative scoliosis. both legs mostly right, pain that doesn't respond to any drugs, very little back pain.

Been through shots, PT & MILD procedure. Only thing left is L2-L5 fusion. Just gutting it out for now.

My wife has had 6 fusions so I've seen the good, bad & ugly. I trust surgeon who did her last 2 but neither he nor my 2nd opinion surgeon mentioned the XLIF because they don't do that type or surgery but are excellent surgeons.

I am going see a Dr who does the OLLIF basically the same to see if I am a canidate

I'm glad you are questioning the Doc's. My concern would be is the spondylitis bad enough to require stabilization by fusion and is that level actually causing your pain or is it from the next levels down.

Keep researching, one thing I know is you can't undo a fusion.

Jump to this post

Replies to "Same boat here. Foramonal Stenosis from adult degenerative scoliosis. both legs mostly right, pain that doesn't..."
cira3 | @cira3 | 12 hours ago

@jlssurplus
Thank you for your response. You have a good point about the spondylitis, and is it unstable enough to require fusion. I’m trying to find a 2nd opinion on that issue and further question my current surgeon about it. My current surgeon said in his opinion it was too unstable for a prosthetic disc. I’m going to ask him about Coflex, my guess is he will say it’s too unstable. The XLIF only makes the surgery minimally invasive because they use robotics and can make small incisions from the side. The actual fusion procedure is the same as the traditional fusion. Bone graft, cage, screws etc. So if you trust your surgeon that’s great and you’re in good hands even if they don’t do XLIF. XLIF only makes initial recovery faster. You can leave the hospital the next day and walk. Other than that I don’t see much difference

VIEW AND REPLY