[Isthmic bone grafting in the treatment of lumbar spondylolysis]

Twenty-one patients with lumbar vertebral isthmic spondylolysis were treated by inserting bone graft in the isthmic defect. Grafting should also include the adjacent facet joints, thus after healing of grafted bone lumbar stability could be obtained, all cases were followed up for 10-15 months. Twenty-one patients had 44 isthmic lesions 39 of them revealed bony fusion radiologically (88.7%). On clinical evaluation, the combined excellent and good results reached 90.5%.