Lumbar motion-sparing surgery

Surgical treatment of the painful lumbar spine segment is a challenging endeavor. The ideal surgical intervention has a predictably good clinical effect, a low incidence of complications, and long-term durability. The gold standard for surgical intervention is a lumbar spine fusion, but the long-term durability of lumbar fusions is compromised with the development of adjacent level degeneration. Due to these concerns, motion-sparing surgical implants, including artificial discs, dynamic stabilization techniques, and nucleus pulposus replacements, have been developed to simultaneously treat the painful motion segment while at the same time preserving sufficient motion to decrease the chances of adjacent level degeneration.