The prospective randomized and blinded study examined the five-year interim outcomes for patients with two-level lumbar degenerative disc disease. The patients were randomized into either the midline or the paraspinal posterior approach for the posterior approach of the anterior-posterior fusion. There were 25 patients in each group. The researchers found:
1. There wasn’t any difference between the two groups in operative time, blood loss, implant cost or other intraoperative parameter.
2. There wasn’t any difference in the clinical improvement for the outcomes between the two groups. Both groups experienced significant improvement in outcomes scales postoperatively.
3. The postoperative MRI T2 relaxation values were significantly higher at the operative levels and distally, but there wasn’t a difference between the two groups in these changes.
4. The researchers could not demonstrate that the paraspinal muscle-splitting approach to two-level fusion was superior to the muscle-stripping midline approach.
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