Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 3, 2025
Multilevel Oblique Lumbar Interbody Fusion in Degenerative Lumbar Disc Disease with Instability
Published on: July 25, 2025
Expandable Interbody Fusion Cages: An Editorial on the Surgeon's Perspective on Recent Technological Advances and
Kai-Uwe Lewandrowski1, Lisa Ferrara2, Boyle Cheng3
1Center for Advanced Spine Care of Southern Arizona and Surgical Institute of Tucson, Arizona, Department of Orthopaedics, Fundación Universitaria Sanitas, Bogotá, Colombia, Department of Neurosurgery, Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Background:
Expandable cages have gone through several iterations since they first appeared on the market in the early 2000s. Their development was prompted by some common problems associated with static interbody cages, including migration, expulsion, dural or neural traction injury, and pseudarthrosis.
Objective:
To summarize current technological advances from earlier expandable lumbar interbody fusion devices to implants with vertical and medial-to-lateral expansion mechanisms.
Methods:
The authors review the currently available expandable cage designs, the incremental technological advances, and how these devices impact minimally invasive surgery interbody procedures and clinical outcomes. The strategic concepts intended to improve the minimally invasive application of expandable interbody fusion implants are reviewed from a surgeon's perspective in a clinical context to discuss how their use may improve patient outcomes.
Conclusions:
The geometrical configuration, effective stiffness of composite multi-material cage designs may impact the bone-implant contact area with the endplates. Hybridization strategies of expandable cage technology with modern minimally invasive and endoscopic spinal surgery techniques are presented by outlining their advantages and disadvantages.
Level Of Evidence:
1 CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Systematic review.
