Evidence Level of the Placement of Screws Outside Pedicle in Thoracic and Lumbar Spine

Abstract

International recommendations in spine surgery require reproducible, safe and effective procedures. The placement of pedicle screws is technically demanding and relies on different methods of support, which result a high rate of complications related to suboptimal screw placement, with reports ranging from 15.7% to 40% according to Hansen-Algenstaedt N and Koktekir E in separate studies. This study carried out a systematic review of existing literature to identify the level of evidence of the placement of pedicle screws outside the pedicle in thoracic and lumbar spine. For the systematic review, a search of the existing literature, based on the use of MeSH terms in PubMed-Medline, Ovid, The Cochrane Library, MedicLatina, Elsevier, and EBSCO databases. According to the literature found, most authors agree that the placement of screws outside the pedicle itself does not represent a serious complication or that requires repositioning in a second surgery even when they are found to have a violation up to 50% of the medial wall of the pedicle. However, they agree that repositioning should be immediate if it is shown with imaging studies such as MRI and CT that endangers vascular and/or neurological structures, or are associated with biomechanical alterations of the spine. Level of Evidence II; Systematic Review of studies level II.