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Updated: Aug 15, 2026
Clinical Application of Microscope-Assisted Minimally Invasive Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion
Published on: June 16, 2023
The correlation between preoperative disc space height and clinical outcomes after anterior lumbar interbody fusion
Thomas C Schuler1, J Kenneth Burkus, Matthew F Gornet
1Virginia Spine Institute, Reston, VA, USA.
Objective:
To determine whether preoperative disc space height (DSH) influences the clinical outcomes of patients diagnosed with single-level symptomatic discogenic disease and treated with a stand-alone anterior lumbar interbody fusion with two tapered threaded fusion cages, we performed a retrospective analysis of 392 patients.
Methods:
Preoperative radiographs were used to establish four study groups based on the patients' DSH: the tall disc group: DSH >15 mm; the intermediate tall group: DSH ranging from 10 to 15 mm; the intermediate collapsed group: DSH ranging from 5 to 10 mm; and the collapsed disc group: DSH <5 mm.
Results:
All of the patient groups exhibited improvement in their clinical outcomes. However, patients in the collapsed disc group (DSH of <5 mm) tended to have earlier and greater improvement in Oswestry Disability Index scores, Physical Component Summary scores of the Short Form-36, and Visual Analog Scale scores for low back pain.
Conclusion:
Symptomatic disc degeneration can be readily identified with plain radiographic findings, and patients' symptoms can often be relieved predictably with a stand-alone interbody fusion procedure.
