More than 5 year-Follow-Up After Pedicle Screw Fixation and Fusion for Isthmic Spondylolisthesis

Korean Medical Treatment for Improving Symptoms of Four Patients Diagnosed with Grade II Lumbar Spondylolisthesis

“…Margaret L observed patients treated with exercise treatments alone or in combination with other treatments, have a positive effect on low back pain due to spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis. The patients in which conservative treatment failed and continue to have severe pain or neurological disorder or slip progresses over 40 % should undergo surgery, such as spinal body fusion 8,9) . Surgery is indicated for patients who do not respond to conservative treatment lasting more than 1 year, who suffer from persistent pain and neurological symptoms, children who show over 50 % slip, children with an increasing 33 % slip and persistent symptoms, adults with accompanied disc herniation, patietns with occuring adjacent degenerative stenosis and adult patients with spondylolisthesis occuring at the L4-5 level 10) .…”

“…However, surgery can cause various complications such as ASD and muscular or neural adhesion. Due to certain risks associated with surgery, such as pseudoarthrosis, loss of motion segment, further slippage, neurological deficit, residual deformity, blood loss that occurred by surgery, further study about conservative treatment must be needed [8][9][10]23) . In Korean medicine spondylolisthesis can belong to low back pain(腰痛) or sciatica(腰脚痛).…”

“…Most patients with spondylolisthesis are managed by conservative therapies such as orthosis, exercise, or physical therapy 5,6) , very few are treated by surgery 7) . But surgery might end up with further complication and pains due to excessive muscle incision and adjacent segmental degeneration(ASD) [8][9][10] . In Korean medicine, spondylolisthesis is viewed as low back pain(腰痛), sciatica(腰脚痛), numbness, tinglings or dysesthesia(痺證).…”