Some possible risks and complications with a posterolateral gutter fusion include smoking, obesity, prior surgery and multiple-level spine fusion procedures.
Spinal Fusion
Spinal fusion surgery comes in many forms: lumbar spinal fusion, cervical spinal fusion, and PLIFs just to name a few. They are all designed to help limit pain caused by the joints, though each surgery is different depending on whether you are trying to treat degenerative disc disease, spondylolisthesis, or another condition. Knowing your spinal fusion options can go a long way toward alleviating your back pain.
Allograft is bone harvested by a tissue bank from a cadaver for use in medical procedures like spinal fusion, with it used on its own or as a supplement to the patient's own bone.
An anterior/posterior lumbar fusion procedure fuses both the front and back of the spine, provides a high degree of stability for the spine, and creates a large surface area for bone fusion to occur.
In Anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) surgery the disc space is fused by approaching the spine through the abdomen instead of through the lower back.