Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 27, 2026
Evaluation of Patients' Posture and Gait Profile After Lumbar Fusion Surgery by Video Rasterstereography and Treadmill Gait Analysis
Published on: March 23, 2019
Reliability analysis of radiographic methods for determination of posterolateral lumbossacral fusion
Alberto Ofenhejm Gotfryd1, Felipe de Moraes Pomar1, Nicola Jorge Carneiro Neto1
1Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Santos, Santos, SP, Brazil.
Objective:
To analyze intra and interobserver agreement of two radiographic methods for evaluation of posterolateral lumbar arthrodesis.
Methods:
Twenty patients undergoing instrumented posterolateral fusion were evaluated by anteroposterior and dynamic lateral radiographs in maximal flexion and extension. The images were evaluated initially by 6 orthopedic surgeons, and after 8 weeks, reassessed by 4 of them, totaling 400 radiographic measurements. Intra and interobserver reliability were analyzed using the Kappa coefficient and Landis and Koch criteria.
Results:
Intra and interobserver agreement regarding anteroposterior radiographs were, respectively, 76 and 63%. On lateral views, these values were 78 and 84%, respectively. However, the Kappa analysis showed poor intra and interobserver agreement in most cases, regardless of the radiographic method used.
Conclusion:
There was poor intra and interobserver agreement in the evaluation of lumbosacral fusion by plain film in anteroposterior and dynamic lateral views, with no statistical superiority between the methods.
