Choice of approach does not affect clinical and radiological outcomes: A comparative cohort of ALIF and XLIF patients at 12 months.

Abstract

Lumbar interbody fusion is an accepted surgical technique to address severe degenerative disc disease, radiculopathy and deformity. Anterior fusion techniques such as ALIF (anterior lumbar interbody fusion) and XLIF (extreme lateral interbody fusion) are relatively newer techniques for interbody fusion compared to more widely used traditional posterior methods (posterior and transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (P/TLIF).