[Ventral intercorporal spondylodesis in lumbar instabilities]

Ventral spondylodesis is said to be a useful method for the treatment of lumbar illness in combination with instability and pain. Between 1969 and 1983 62 patients of the Orthopedic University Hospital Berlin were operated for a ventral fusion of the lumbar column, excluded the Dwyer spondylodesis indicated in lumbar scoliosis. 50 of them could be re-examined. The result was good and fair in seventy per cent; the consolidation rate 62 per cent in no relation to the clinical result. Best satisfaction was got by those patient who suffered from spondylolisthesis without any compressions of sciatic nerve. Any previous operation of the nerve root with persistent symptoms lowers the aim of spondylodesis as a salvage procedure. With the experience of the surgeon the method itself is without a higher rate of complication than any other way of spondylodesis.