Clinical and Radiological Outcome following MIS-TLIF and Open-TLIF between Asian and African Population- A Comparative Retrospective Analysis in 104 Patients

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate pre-operative and post-operative sagittal parameters using pelvic incidence (PI), lumbar lordosis (LL), and segmental lordosis (SL) between Asian and African population who underwent minimally invasive surgery-transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF) and open-TLIF surgeries. Study compares blood loss, operative time, and hospital stay; and evaluates disability and pain by Oswestry disability index (ODI) and visual analog scale (VAS) score, respectively, in both groups. Methods: This retrospective study included 104 patients with an average age of 52.1 ± 12.9 years. All were operated for open-TLIF and MIS-TLIF for one- or two-level lumbar canal stenosis or spondylolisthesis. Patients were divided into two groups according to race: Asian and African. Clinical improvements were evaluated using VAS and ODI scores. Modified MacNab’s criteria were used to evaluate outcome. Estimated blood loss, hospital stay, operative time, perioperative morbidity, and complications were reviewed. On radiological parameters, patients’ LL, PI, and SL were compared between two groups. Results: Average follow-up was 40.6 ± 13.9 months. Both groups showed significant post-operative improvement in their VAS and ODI scores in both open- and MIS-TLIF (P < 0.0001); however, comparing clinical improvement between Asian and African groups, it did not show significant difference in VAS (P = 0.103) and ODI (P = 0.077). Both groups showed significant improvement in LL and SL in both open- and MIS-TLIF (P < 0.0001); however, there was no change in PI. It did not show any significant difference in improvement in LL (P = 0.156), PI (P = 0.798), and SL (P = 0.179) between Asian and African groups. Regarding post-operative complications, there were 4 (6.9%) and 3 (6.5%) complications occurred in Asian and African population, respectively. There were no difference in complication rates in both groups (P = 0.939). Discussion: TLIF (MIS and open) gives similar clinical outcome between Asian and African population. Sagittal parameters were higher in African population than the Asian population. Attention should be paid to predetermine the value of LL to achieve during surgery. Keywords: Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion, Asian versus African, Sagittal parameters, Clinical outcome.