PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lindado, Carlos Alberto
AU  - Devia, Diego Armando
AU  - Gutiérrez, Santiago
AU  - Patiño, Sergio Iván
AU  - Ocampo, Maria Isabel
AU  - Berbeo, Miguel Enrique
AU  - Diaz, Roberto Carlos
TI  - Intraoperative Complications of Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion: A 5-Year Experience of a Group of Spine Surgeons Performing Their Own Approaches
AID  - 10.14444/8299
DP  - 2022 Apr 21
TA  - International Journal of Spine Surgery
PG  - 8299
4099  - https://www.ijssurgery.com/content/early/2022/07/13/8299.short
4100  - https://www.ijssurgery.com/content/early/2022/07/13/8299.full
AB  - Background Spine surgery has evolved at an accelerated pace, allowing the development of more efficient surgical techniques while providing a decreasing rate of morbimortality. One example of these approaches is the anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF). The aim of this study was to evaluate the surgical complication rate when performing ALIF without the help of a vascular “access” surgeon.Methods A retrospective descriptive study was conducted at the Hospital Universitario San Ignacio between 2014 and 2018 and included all patients who underwent ALIF during this time. A nonsystematic review was performed assessing approach-related complications in ALIF and the impact of “access” surgeons in surgical outcomes.Results A total of 337 patients were included and 508 levels were fused. ALIF was performed as ALIF-360° (27%), ALIF-lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) (8.9%), and stand-alone ALIF (62%). Most procedures were single-level fusions (51.9%), 45.4% involved 2 levels, and 2.6% were 3-level fusions. The mortality rate was 0%, and only 9 cases of vascular injury were observed and described. Left and common iliac veins were the predominant affected structures. Only a single case required blood transfusion without any other treatment or intensive care unit surveillance.Conclusions Our study is consistent with literature reports about ALIF complications, finding an incidence of 1.7%. Therefore, ALIF is an excellent alternative for spine procedures, especially for the levels L5-S1 that require sagittal balance restoration. The approaches were performed without a vascular “access” surgeon and presented complication rates similar to those described in the literature.